A/N: Happy New Year guys! Any new year resolutions? One of mine is to finish this fanfiction, I swear this storyline seemed so much simpler when I started it over a year ago... Not that I'm complaining, I just never realised I had all these twists waiting to be discovered when I first started it ^_^
Review Replies:
Protagonist of Life: I know the feeling, I've been saying that for the last hour ^_^ The sleep thing, not the chickens...
MagicalPillows: Hehe, glad someone else is, cause I've been fan-girling over them since I thought of Shun
Irgoomer: Awh, tough girl, she'll get through ^_^ Well Shun knew his kitty was still in there, even if she was growling at that moment ^_^
Inutear(review on chapter 1): It is a KyoxTohru but it has more of a focus on my OCs story. There is mentions of KyoXTohru but not as often as a lot of stories would mention it. I'm going to PM you this in case you haven't gotten this far too ^_^
AniMags: Sorry, I tried to balance cute with seriousness. This chapter is also kind of serious... But I promise to fulfil your wish in the next one. Plenty of fluff to come, I promise ^_^
Fantasyanimegirl283: Hehe, so much Shun love from that chapter ^_^ He is a good guy though, however he still has a few things to overcome before this story is done ^_^ He will always try to be there for Anju though, and vice versa, though she'll never admit it...
ShadedStarlight (chapter 35 and 36 review): Interesting theory, I promise by the end of the story you will know why she ended up there. I'm going to leave you guys asking relatively few questions by the end ^_^ oooohhh now that is another interesting theory, and you're the only one to suggest it. Hmmm... yes rather interesting.
Without Further ado, Here's chapter 37
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"Nami, I appreciate all the help, but I've been awake for three days now, let me go before I maul those pretty blue eyes out of your face." Anju said sweetly, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood in the doorway of her infirmary room. Nami blocked her way, glowering at the blonde with irritation.
"Anju, you suffered a major head trauma, you can't expect me to just let you go."
"Gonna be honest doc, either you let me through this door or I'm going out the damn window." Anju retorted, jutting her chin towards her secondary escape route. Nami sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. After a moment she opened them and met Kaida's sympathetic gaze.
"Can't you talk any sense into her?" Nami begged. Kaida smirked,
"I already did. Why do you think she didn't leave yesterday?"
Nami groaned. "Fine, fine. I mean, I think it's a terrible idea and worrying about you girls has probably aged me about ten years, and frankly I think letting you leave is a horrible, horrible decision that I'm going to regret almost instantly-"
"That's great. But can we skip to the part where you get out of the way?"Anju asked. Nami scowled but stepped to the side. Anju gave her a tight smile and strutted out the door. Kaida rolled her eyes but chuckled as she followed. As she passed Nami the older girl grabbed the dragon's arm gently.
"Be careful with her, she may not be ready to talk about what happened."
Kaida nodded, "I will, I have been."
Nami nodded, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder, trying to assess how far Anju was from them. "There's something else." She muttered, pulling Kaida closer. "Those dreams Anju had. Something about them bother me."
Kaida frowned, "Why?"
"It's just what she said. The dog and the mountain, that thing about the forest and the village burning and, well, you... I thought it sounded familiar."
"What?" Kaida whispered, her voice uneasy. Nami opened her mouth but was interrupted.
"Kaida! Come on! Your nose was broken, not your leg!" Anju called back. Kaida glanced quickly towards the voice and then back at Nami's anxious face.
"One second, Anju! Just talking shop with the doc."
"Better not be about me, I swear you'd think I nearly died."
"You sort of did, Anju." Kaida reminded.
"Details, details, just hurry up!" Anju dismissed.
Kaida turned back to Nami, "What do you mean it sounded familiar?"she demanded in a quiet voice.
"I only realised it yesterday, those things, I heard someone describing them to Anju while she was asleep. At the time I thought they were just some weird fairy tales or myths. But now I'm not sure."
"Why? What made you think they could be anything else?"
"Because the person who told her these things was Haruka."
Kaida froze. Kyo drew in a sharp breath, Haruka had fed Anju the words that sparked her nightmares. Why? What possible motive could she have for torturing her sister with images that terrified her? Especially now that Haruka has realised that Osamu had been lying to her all this time.
"Haruka..." Kaida said slowly. Nami nodded,
"And if what Anju said is true, and she really was involved in the attack..."
"Then they might not have just been stories." Kaida finished.
"It's just too much of a coincidence. I don't know why or even if Haruka actually did something to Anju, I don't know how she could, I mean their twins."
Kaida just swallowed and gave a stiff nod, Kyo had a feeling Osamu's compulsion stopped her from passing any comment.
"There's one other thing." Nami said, but at that moment Anju reappeared beside them.
"For the love of Osamu woman, hurry your skinny ass up!" Anju faltered when she saw Nami gripping Kaida's arm. Immediately Nami dropped it, both of the women taking a step back from each other.
"Am I interrupting?" Anju asked with a crooked eyebrow. Kaida rolled her eyes and cocked her hip,
"Haha. Gods, you sound like Ryu."
"That's not a no, you know." Anju shot back, grabbing Kaida and jerking her towards her. The tall red head let out a yelp and stumbled forward. She glared at the tiger who promptly ignored it.
"See you later doc, I'm taking my dragon back." She winked at Nami before turning on her heel and half dragging Kaida down the corridor. Kaida glanced back just in time to see Nami throw her an exasperated glance before walking further into the infirmary.
"So, little miss dragon. You've got some explaining to do."
Kaida frowned at Anju, "What do you mean?"
"I'm unconscious for a few measly days-"
"Was more than a few." Kaida muttered. Anju shot her a look before continuing,
"Like I said, I was unconscious for a certain amount of time and when I wake up you are all cosy with the kitty. When the hell did that happen?"
"Well, we're not that cosy at the moment. He's mad at me for not telling him what happened to my face."
Anju growled, "I'm mad about that too but stop trying to change the subject, what happened between you two?"
Kaida shrugged, "I don't really know, he saw the scar on my back and freaked out and the next thing I know I was kissing him."
Kyo barked out a laugh. The ghostly Kaida frowned at him,
"What's got you chuckling?" She asked, confused.
"You. Like Anju's not going to have follow up question's to that answer." Kyo said with a smirk.
Anju looked at Kaida for a moment before giving a quick nod. "Distraction tactic, very well played. Hope you're not planning on using that on me next time I ask a question you can't answer."
Kaida scoffed, "Please you'd love it."
"You wish. You're not my type."
"What?!" Kyo shouted. The ghostly Kaida began wholeheartedly laughing. "She seriously took that as an explanation? But, I mean, you didn't tell her anything!"
Kaida didn't reply, she just kept chuckling to herself.
"Shut up! Stop laughing at me!"
"You were so sure of yourself too, poor thing. 'Like she won't have follow up questions to that answer'." Kaida said the last part in a poor impersonation of Kyo. He scowled at her,
"I said shut up. Can we just get on with it?"
"Aw, poor little kitten thought he understood girls." Kaida reached out and ruffled Kyo's hair playfully.
"You suck."
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's skip the small talk and get straight to the juicy bit."
"And what's the juicy bit?" Kyo asked, trying to sound disinterested in her despite it being pointless. Kaida knew she had him now.
"Anju's nightmares."
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Their surroundings swirled around them, morphing into the girl's room. Each of them were on their respective bed, Kaida, sitting on the edge facing her friend and Anju, lying across hers, staring hard at her ceiling.
"There was a few of them. They kept playing over and over again. They felt really bloody real. Like, when I woke up I thought... Aw hell, I don't know, like they actually happened, or they were gonna happen. Even now, I feel like they're going to come true. But like, they can't all come true, they don't even make any damn sense!" Anju groaned, throwing her hands over her face.
Kaida smiled supportively, "They're probably nothing more than dreams, still it might be good for you to talk about them." Kyo could see the interest in her brown eyes she was trying to hide. Obviously Anju wasn't aware of why Kaida really thought they might be important.
Anju sighed, "Fine. Well, in a way, it's all one dream, like a story... it doesn't even make sense. It's like I had a voice in my head, telling me things and then suddenly my head would just see the vision, like the voice turned into the dream. But the first part, the first part is of this mountain. Bigger than any of the ones we have here. It's completely bare, no trees on it, nothing. And around the bottom of it there's all of these animals, all of them are grazing and just living life, you know? But suddenly, all the other animals disappear and all that's left is the dog. And the dog starts climbing up the mountain, its whimpering, likes it's in pain, but it keeps climbing up the mountain. The next thing that I know, the earth starts shaking, it's like the entire mountain has come to life, giant rocks starts falling down the sides of it and the dog, it just keeps climbing, even though there's a landslide coming. And then... the dog gets hit. It's knocked back to the bottom of the mountain, under all that rubble. I... oh gods I'm going to sound like such a bloody drama queen, but I think it dies. And the mountain, it just keeps rumbling."
Anju paused, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Kaida licked her lips, her face puzzled.
"Are you-"
"You're in the next part." Anju said, cutting her off. Kaida's eyes widened just as Anju opened hers. "The rumbling, it turns into a roar. And behind the mountain a huge red dragon flies into the air. It's you Kaida, except, I've never seen you like that, there's so much damn anger, you've completely lost it. You start breathing fire all over the place, you set the whole bloody mountain on fire. Then you burn down the forests. It's like I'm looking down on you and your little temper tantrum. You go to the main house and you set that on fire too. You couldn't give a shit who you hurt or who you killed. You just wanted to burn the whole place down. I've never seen you so strong, or so unhinged."
Kaida smiled, "Well, we know for a fact, that's not going to happen because I don't plan on burning everything to the ground. Besides-"
"That's not the part that scares me." Anju said.
Kaida smirked, "You are interrupting me even more than usual today, you know that?"
Anju gave tight lipped smile, "Guess I just feel like talking." She took a deep breath. "There is one more part though."
Kaida nodded, "Go on."
"I... I don't understand it. The mountain, it's back, but it's in the distance now. I'm somewhere else, somewhere else that's high. And I don't know what's going on, but I just feel like I'm drowning. Or choking, maybe. Like, there's this lump in my throat and I can't breathe. I keep looking forward and I can't look down, I don't know why but I can't. I'm scared of what I'll see. So I look up instead. That's when something weird happens. The sky, it's way more blue than normal, is clear. But it just starts raining, no cloud or nothing, but it starts pouring rain."
Anju took a deep breath. "And then I get this burst of courage. And I look down. And, and, oh for the love of Osamu, why am I taking this so damn seriously..." Anju swallowed, "I see you, lying there, still and pale. Like, pale even for you. The next second, you catch fire and then... nothing. The vision ends."
Anju sat up on her bed and didn't say a word for a moment or two. Kaida just stood sat there, confused.
When she did speak she didn't look at Kaida. "But they were just dreams, right? That's all they were."
Kaida smiled. "Of course, that's all they were." Her voice didn't sound completely sure.
"Just nightmares." Anju confirmed. She met Kaida's eyes for the first time, her golden orbs begging for reassurance. Kaida nodded, trying to give it to her.
"Nightmares."