Next thing I remember, is waking up some place where I didn't seem to be lying on something as comfortable as a bed, nor was it somewhere as quiet as a hospital. That is, assuming I actually was in a hospital just then. I also felt like their was something lying on my belly. Not particularly heavy, but it did make it harder for me to breath.

My eyes were still hurt, but at least I could open them better then. Again I didn't know the place, but I did recognize it as some kind of cargo base. Judging from the sounds I kept hearing I concluded we were on an airplane. I smelled some kind of wood, which indicates that I'm lying on some kind of crate. I looked down to my belly, to see that Talim had fallen asleep, and laid her head to rest on me. There was nothing I could say yet to wake her up, so instead I tried to get up. I had no idea how long I've been asleep, but apparently it was long enough to cause my body to be numb. The best thing I could do was try to lift up one hand, and hold her nose. That one seemed to work just fine, for she got up and drew her blades. It took a moment for her to realize it was only me.

"I really wished you'd wake me in a different way." she complained.

There wasn't much I could say, for I didn't know Werther that one day the doctor had mentioned had already expired or not. I guess I'll find that out in due time. I tried to stretch out my hand, to signal her.

"You want me to help you get up?"

I nodded. She helped. I even tried to stand up, but even that didn't work without her help either.

"Easy! It takes time before you can move normally again."

I was about to ask her how long I've been asleep, but then I remembered I shouldn't talk. She did notice I was about to say something, though.

"You can talk, if you want to. You slept for another two days after you first woke up. And before that you slept for three days."

Though my throat felt dry, I still managed to say something: "That's what I was about to ask."

Talim noticed my dry voice: "You want something to drink?"

I didn't want to say yes, so I nodded instead. She helped me to sit down, and left to get me something to drink. While she was gone, I tried to move my legs. I kind of tried to train myself into moving my body again. By the time she had returned, I didn't need her help anymore to get up, but I still needed to lean on something to be able to stand up at all.

"I see you're getting better then!" she said laughingly.

She gave me a plastic cup of water. I wanted to take a whole gulp at first, but the pain made me realize I'd better start with smaller doses.

There was something Talim had been dying to say earlier: "I'm really sorry I got you to go through all of this. I feel so responsible."

There was nothing she could have done about the ninja's being paranoid. I tried to make her realize that: "Well, it's the first time for me to ever be on an airplane. So I guess I should really be thanking you."

Talim smiled as she said: "It's nice to see you taking it well!"

"I will be until this plane crashes!" I remarked pessimistically. That remark made her lose her smile. For some reason, I don't know why, but I didn't want her to feel the way she did.

"Did you stay with me the whole time I was asleep?" I asked her.

"Yes! After what what happened, I couldn't bear to leave your side."

"Nice to hear that!" I assured her.

"Really?"

"I honestly didn't expect you to stay at all! Then again, I expected that either I was dreaming the whole night, or I would die in that fight."

For a short while, there was silence. I realize we were on a plane, but it took a while for something to occur to me: "Where are we headed?"

"Sargedgna!" she answered.

I never heard of that name. Talim could read that from my face, so she explained: "It's an island near Italy."

"Why are we going there?"

"Because of you, they lost a lot of money, so they go to the money pit."

There's a name I recognized: "The money pit? As in..."

"There was a man who collected all kinds of treasure, and threw them into a very deep pit."

Yep. I knew I heard it somewhere before.

Talim continued: "There was a time when the clan had a hard time reaching down to it. With today's technologies they believe they can now. It was never needed until you got them to lose much of their money."

"Never knew I could make that much of a difference!" I thought out loud.

"With any luck, we might actually find the sword down there!" she finally stated.

"Yeah, about that..." I began talking about something I've been meaning to ask before.

"What?" she asked.

"You told me you had cleansed the sword! So it's not evil anymore, right?"

"Right after I cleansed it, no!" she talked about long ago, "But over the ages, other people started to grab it's lit, and it regained it's evilness eventually."

"So instead of cleansing it," I finally understood, "you decide to destroy it permanently?"

"It is the only way to get rid of it's evil!"

Still questioning some other things, I asked: "And collecting all metal fragments would help us because...?"

"If they are in close proximity of the sword, they will melt together. And the only way to be completely certain of Soul Edge's destruction..."

"Is to destroy him completely, including the fragments!" I finished the sentence for her.

"Yes."

Still thinking out loud: "Finding one needle in a haystack is already difficult. How..."

"The wind would tell me when the time comes!" was her answer.

I was never really into any religion, therefor I responded: "W... Wh... Wha... Wha... What?"

"I know it's hard for you to understand." she assured me, "It will become more clear when it happens."

I should hope so. I never really did understand how her people could warship the wind just like some people warship gods. And that last bit was already hard enough to understand.

There was another question I wanted to ask her, like where has she been for past few hundreds of years. But for some reason, I felt that if I ask her, I might in some way offend her. It would sound like "You had that much time, and only now you decided to do that", or "All this time, and you never even took your time to enjoy it". I don't have an immortal life, and my parents even think that I have too much free time. If it were up to them, they'd make sure I wouldn't have any time to eat or sleep. I was only too lucky to have them allowing me to live on my own during my college years. When I thought about that, I realized I didn't know what day we were today. Talim told me I was asleep for five days, in total. But she didn't tell me Werther she counted today or the day I passed out as one them. So it's possible that my parents have discovered that I'm not at my studio apartment anymore. Imagine that: they arrive there, they knock on my door, I don't open, they call the landlord after trying to kick the door open...

"You're very quiet!" she interrupted my thoughts, "Something on your mind?"

"Nothing of any significance." I answered flatly.