The car ride home was unusually quite much to Nanjirou's suspicion. It was almost like he was waiting for a meteor to come falling out of the sky and obliterate his insignificant existence. Damn Star Wars porn.

If he knew Ryoma as well as he thought he did, which was a lot, he would have expected Ryoma to fall on his knees begging for forgiveness and mercy from his mother. It seemed, though, that Echizen Rinko's authority had somehow forgiven Ryoma's irrational phobia. Which was bad. Very, very, bad for Nanjirou.

Ryoma on the other hand, was too busy hyperventilating over the doom that awaited him tomorrow to notice the incredible change in his mother. Were they going to use anesthesia? Didn't people die from that stuff? Ryoma definitely didn't like the thought of dying in a dental chair of all things. Dying in the hands of a rapist in a dark alley and being eaten beyond recognition by rats sounded more appealing.

"Ryoma," said Rinko in all seriousness when she made the turn to their house, "I have something very important to tell you at home." All eyes turned to Rinko; it was very rare for her to address anyone (except Nanjirou about his magazines). Nanako giggled, but said nothing. Ryoma hated that giggle.

Rinko parked in the driveway and everyone got out in sullen silence. They went in through the front door and Nanako proceeded to close all the windows and make sure the only light that was coming in was from the lamps.

"Sit down," she instructed to Ryoma, and to Nanjirou, "Leave." Okay…now things were starting to get 

really strange. But, to protect themselves, Ryoma and Nanjirou did what they were told.

"What is it?" Ryoma dared to ask.

"You see, Ryoma, there's no easy way to say this." What happened to the atmosphere? It had never been so heavy. "I have been keeping a secret from you."

So…?

"You are not human."

Come again? What is this, a manga novel?

"…"

"I know that this may be hard for you to believe, but it's true, to be blunt. You come from a rare breed of Japanese djinn."

"What are djinn?" Ryoma resolved to ask since there was obviously no way that he was getting out of this.

"Basically what humans or mundane, as we like to call them, call "genies" four dimensional creatures above human existence with control over the real and imaginary."

4-D what? Oh my God, Ryoma thought, my mother's gone insane!

"Mom," Ryoma started, "I don't know when the schizophrenia started, but we need to get you to a hospital right away."

Rinko smiled. "I'm not insane, Ryoma. This is all true. See it for yourself." She muttered something under her breath and the wooden chair that Ryoma was sitting in turned into leather. There was only one way to explain this. He was the one going insane. Ryoma made a break for the phone, but before he could start dialing Rinko had turned it into milk chocolate. Ryoma loved milk chocolate, but that was beside the point.

"All right, I'll believe you," Ryoma lied.

"Good. When you get your wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow, a man will come to see you when you're under the anesthesia. He'll explain everything. Oh, and don't tell your father about any of this."

"Why?"

"He doesn't know. It would be too much for him to handle."

"Alright then, do I have to go to school tomorrow?"

Rinko smiled again, "I think you can afford to skip a day."

--

The day had passed quite quickly. Ryoma went along with what Rinko said just to get her off his back. Before he knew he was in the dentist's chair (in restraints) having the anesthesia mask unwillingly put on him. In a couple of seconds he felt himself falling asleep.

--Dream--

Are there supposed to be dreams under anesthesia? Isn't it more like whoosh! and they knock you out? Kind of like being unconscious?

"Hello!" Ryoma yelled out in English at the white nothing before him. He felt a solid surface underneath him, but didn't see anything but white. It hurt his eyes.

"Hello to you too," an echoing voice replied out of nowhere and the whiteness turned into an empty bar with a pool table.

Ryoma whipped his head around looking for the source of the voice before he called again, "I'm right here, Ryoma." The man was standing in front of him in traditional Japanese clothes. "Do you want to play?"



This was odd. First of all, it wasn't everyday Ryoma remembered his dreams. As a matter of fact, he never remembered his dreams. And here, in his first dream a random man was asking him for a game of pool. Dreams aren't all they're cracked up to be. And people base their lives off of this?

"Okay…" he responded uncertainty as that stick was shoved into his arms. Ryoma had never played pool before and didn't know what he was doing.

Ryoma went up. He held the stick-thing in an awkward position and lightly hit one of the balls that hit the 9 ball as it zoomed dangerously close to the pocket-hole thingy.

"Well done," the stranger congratulated him. "You won."

Ryoma didn't respond straight away. After a while he asked, "Who are you?"

The man looked around himself as if expecting to see someone else standing next to him. When he saw that there was no one but him, he responded, "The uncle of your mother's second cousin's niece's granddaughter's husband."

Ryoma stared at him. "This is the first time I've ever had such a vivid dream. Anesthesia must do wonders to stressed out people."

"Uncle" sighed again, "This isn't exactly a dream, Ryoma. Think of this more like an initiation. I'm introducing you into a more, let's say, a lesser known part of the world."

"If you're not a dream then how do you know my name without me telling you?" Ryoma countered.

"It's on your birth certificate and medical records. I wouldn't just come without doing some research, right? Remember what your mother told you yesterday? Your djinn education will begin when you get home after getting your wisdom teeth removed. Your mother has them. They'll be safer with her. Also, you are not to leave her presence until my body and myself arrive in Japan. You'll know. Just don't make a tsunami and sink the island underwater while I'm not here, 'kay?"

Ryoma didn't know how to respond. He'd definitely need some concrete proof that his parents weren't getting revenge on him for all those times that he was supposed to do the laundry but didn't. Grr.

--End Dream--

Ryoma heard a faint "See you…" before he found himself awake in the dental chair.

"That wasn't too hard Echizen-kun wasn't it?" Dr. Satan said taking off his mask and gloves.

Fuck you doctor.