Chapter 2: Illusion?
"Something is not right about the bus driver," *beep*
"What does a gajin know?" *beep*
"Everyone is dying we need to get help!" *beep*
"119 what's your emergency?" *beep*
"I-i wanted to see more of," the beeping sound was getting louder and louder and she flinched as she became aware, of the the sounds, the pain in her arms, back, and head, the scratchy blanket beneath her. Then she realized that she was feeling and felt elation well up in her. She hadn't died! They found her in time before the fall had killed her.
'You didn't survive the fall' something told her, but she ignored it, how else could she be here then? She hadn't died in another country, she hadn't left her family behind to hear the news of her death.
She was alive!
"Keiyu, Sweetie?" 'Keiyu? Who' the voice sounded familiar somehow, yet the words, she opened them to see a brown haired man with blue eyes and glasses, bags under his eyes and a name escaped her lips before she could stop it.
"P-papa?" wait that's not, why does she sound so young, her father didn't have blue eyes, or brown hair, what was going on? But tears filled the man's eyes and he clutched her hand, relief and anxiety on his face.
"I'm here Sweetie, I'm here," she tried to say 'my name's not Keiyu, it's' but darkness enveloped her again as she fell unconscious.
Upon awakening, she found herself alone, though she could hear 'Papa's' voice outside the door.
Ok, maybe she was hallucinating before, he hadn't called her by a different name, and she hadn't called him Papa with a little girl's voice.
Then the pain in her head increased and she started whimpering, it felt like something was trying to pierce through her skull, like it was trying to get out.
"Keiyu, hey, what's wrong?" the man was back and he started to sound frantic,
"My head," she answered in between sobs, "It hurts, it hurts," she heard him run to the hall and shout for 'Keiko', a name that sounded familiar in the same way he did, but she still didn't know why.,
"I've got her medicine, and I crushed it up in the water, this should help with the headache,," someone lifted her head up and poured something down her throat. The pain started fading and the piercing sensation in her head dissipated.
"Maybe you'll think twice about going off into the forest by yourself when you know that I've warned you about the dam, Hibiki told me all about it," what? That didn't right.
"Is now the right time Keiko? She almost died," Papa sounded angry, but not at her.
"Yes it is, because I will not have you blaming me for our daughter almost dying if she decides not to follow the rules I set for her. One of which was never to go into that forest," 'lies' why was she lying?
"But, I didn't," she coughed up some medicine that was poured down her throat and heard Mama telling Papa about needing to give her all of it.
'Why is Mama lying? Why' a voice in the back of her head cried out, and she felt hurt welling up in her as the woman lied to the man about her going into the forest by herself.
But she hadn't gone in by herself, those kids had gone with her.
This time the pain was in the back of her head, willing her to remember, but she didn't want to.
Because Keiyu was not her name, she was not a little girl with parents that she didn't recognize but did.
She was twenty-five, getting ready for her residency in Japan to study for a Doctorate in Japanese studies while also enjoying the fact she was living in a country she wanted to visit since she was little.
If only she could stay in that unknowing bubble forever.
She woke up feeling cotton in her mouth and head and saw herself in a small bed with pink and green covers, a purple octopus lying next to her with stuffing peeking out here and there. A small desk stood next to the bed with different books that she couldn't read the titles of (was that German?). Then with some reluctance she turned to the man from before who was sleeping in a chair, bags under his eyes. Guilt rose up within her, she hadn't meant to make him so worried, but at the same time, she still didn't know who he was.
Getting out of the bed, she stood up for the first time and frowned at her height, biting her lip as that bubble she wanted to stay in started to crack.
Holding onto it with a stubborn will, she looked around before knocking something to the floor and wincing as she turned, half expecting the man to wake up, but his head was still bowed. Looking down at what had fallen over, she spotted a clear crystal ball, tilting her head at it, for there wasn't even a crack in the thing, she bent down to pick it up.
That was a mistake.
At the same time as she saw her face reflected in the crystal, her head exploded with pain as memories of Mumichi Keiyu broke free of their confinement.
The ball fell to the ground once again as she stumbled, clutching her head and immediately Papa was there.
"Hey, hey, does your head hurt?" he picked her up and placed the back of his hand against her forehead. "Looks like a fever, I'll get some soup prepared, stay in bed okay?" he left the room and she let the tears fall, curling up in on herself as reality hit her.
She had died, and who knows how long she's been dead?
Not even the thought of being Japanese herself now or having green hair could cheer her up from the thought of never seeing any of her loved ones again.
She couldn't even say goodbye.