White lights, white rooms, an endless array of hospital doors. Ami Takashi sighed. Every day seemed the same. Open door. Close door. Patient. Asleep, as usual. He had been asleep like that for seventeen days now. She wondered what it would be like to be in a coma, but had no real desire to know.

This mysterious, unidentified patient was first rushed in with a high fever and low body temperature. How odd to look upon a face that before was so frozen, near death, and now so calm and peaceful. But still asleep. Poor thing. He was kind of cute too... Ami sighed.

She turned to leave when she heard a stirring noise. She looked back toward the patient, who, to her surprise, groaned.

She rushed over to him. She remembered her father's farm, how she loved to watch the baby chicks hatch from eggs. It felt kind of like that. For her, anyway.

"Umm.." the patient said in a sleepy daze. "Where... am I?"

"A hospital in Tokyo," she blurted, and immediately inwardly scolded herself. Duh.

The patient, however, didn't find this information so obvious. "Tokyo..?" the patient closed his eyes.

"Well, yes--"

"Say..." he said slowly. "What year is it?"

Ami looked back over at him, giving him a forced smile. Was this guy serious?

"It's 2010," she said, deciding not to ask him.

The patient sighed heavily, and muttered something quietly to himself, about how he must have been dreaming or something before.

"Well, um, you see--" she said, slightly uneasy. "Nineteen days ago some hikers found you and that other guy, practically frozen solid just outside of Tokyo. It's amazing you've made it really, with such remarkable recovery."

He didn't reply.

"Uhh. So. What's your name?" she asked.

"Touma Kusaka," he replied gravely. She nodded. A nice name...

"You know," he lifted his head, and laughed fakely. "I don't remember anything at all."

She stared after him. "Oh..."

She got up, and started to leave. "Oh yeah," she said, and turned around again. "The man that was with you—um, if you remember him—just left here a couple of days ago. He didn't seem to remember anything either, and ran around the hospital in a daze yelling 'Kusaka! Kusaka!' Frankly, we all thought he had gone mad."

Kusaka did not reply. Ami frowned, and left him alone.

"Akizuki..." he said to himself sadly. "Maybe it wasn't a dream."

But how could it not be?

When Kusaka woke up again, he was alone. He waited patiently for a while until the nurse came in again.

"Hey, nurse," he said, looked down at himself. "Akizuki... that man who was looking for me. Where did he go?"

The nurse paused, seeming a bit surprised. "He... ran away. With the busy Tokyo streets you know... we have no idea. He had no identification, so..."

"I see," he sighed. He threw the hospital sheets off him. "Where are my clothes?"

"Um, sir? You need to lie down."

"No. I need my clothes. And then I need to find Akizuki," Kusaka said, determined. Stupid Akizuki. He always seemed to be running away from him. The thought of him wandering around, lost and cold in Tokyo in a strange era worried Kusaka. And yet, the nurse wanted him to sleep!

"Please, you need rest--"

"I've done nothing but that for a hundred and fifty years. I need my clothes."

A hundred and fifty years?! she thought. He was just as mad as the other guy. "Look, I will tell the doctor that you are doing great and are ready to be released, but please, lie down!"

Kusaka stared at her for a moment, but finally turned and plopped down on his bed in stubborn silence.

"There we go. I'll go get your release papers..." with that, she left him.

"Silly woman!" he exclaimed, arms crossed. Though all that talk about rest did make him a bit tired...

"Sir, wake up..."

"Muuuhhhh," Kusaka groaned. "Oh, you again."

"The doctor checked up on you while you were asleep. He didn't want to disturb you. He agreed to release you. I'll wheel you out."

A wheel chair was by her side, ready.

"Anyway, here are your clothes," she handed him a clear, plastic bag with his clothing very neatly folded inside, shoes and socks and all. "We had them cleaned for you."

"Thank you," he said, and watched her leave again.

He dressed quickly, though slightly messily. He opened the door.

"That was fast. Here, let me wheel you out."

"I can walk just fine."
"It's customary that we wheel you--"

"I can walk just fine," Kusaka repeated, and then walked away quickly, the nurse watching him. She shook her head. Men were so stubborn.

Kusaka left the building quickly, his eyes greeted by a tsunami of people and odd automobiles on the roads. He had seen automobiles before, but they were no where near as fast and neat looking as those. He stared after them in bewilderment. He breathed in the air, smokey and strange.

"Hey, move it!" a voice said, with no indication to where it was from. The people here were strange, it was like he was back in London, only it was even more busy.

2010, huh... he thought, and walked into the unknown.