"The universe may not always be fair, but at least it's got one hell of a sense of humor."

-Michael Patrick King


Ashlynn had a habit of being a light sleeper and found that sometimes when asleep she would be semi-aware of her surroundings. Sometimes this was nice on school trips like to other schools for track meets. She would be able to sleep and she would be aware of how long it would be until they got to their destination. On the other hand it was annoying when she actually wanted to go to sleep. Being a light sleeper meant that even the smallest amount of noise could wake her up, sometimes she would kept awake all night because of it.

Ashlynn wondered why she didn't wake on that Monday morning. Even if there had been that minor power outage she also had set an alarm on her phone and she remembered that the sound had been on max to wake her. And if even that didn't serve to wake her then any noise from her sister or her parents would have alerted her into consciousness.

She decided now was one of the few times it was useful to her as she had no idea where she was so she opted to feign sleep while she figured out what she could without her eyes. Right now she was laying on her back (which she normally wouldn't. She preferred sleeping on her side or on her stomach.) on a bed that was a little stiff and her pillow soft but very firm underneath her head. She felt the sun on her a while ago so that meant that it was either nearing the afternoon or evening depending where the window was positioned and what direction the room was facing. There was a slight sterile smell in the room as if it had been cleaned recently.

Ashlynn directed her attention to her own body. Her arm was sore and her head was dully throbbing along with her ankle and her upper back. Other than that her health seemed fine. So she took a calming breath for whatever she was to see and slowly blinked her eyes open to take in her surroundings. The room was white. A white ceiling, white walls, tiles, sheets, curtains, her temporary clothing...There were five more beds in the room with only one being occupied by another girl who was fast asleep on the other side of the room. Ashlynn concluded by the style of the beds, the whiteness, and the slight sterile smell that she had been admitted to a hospital.

She looked down at herself; she had been changed into white (again) non-printed cotton pajamas, which in her opinion was a better option than the flimsy paper-like gown one would usually get stuck with when in hospital care. Her arm was in a white and very light cast, it didn't hurt to move it so no doubt it was already been set or it didn't need too much healing, she really didn't know. There was a slight bump on the back of her head, no doubt the source of the migraine she was beginning to feel though she wasn't really surprised; she had been thrown backwards off her feet. Someone had taken her hair down so her honeyed colored hair that was normally held up in a messy bun on the left side of her head with strands pulled from the bun to lay brushing at her shoulders so her hair fell down to her mid-back. That was fine for now so long as the air conditioning stayed cool.

The room was white...

She hated it.

Ashlynn turned her head and directed bronze eyes to the door as it opened to reveal a man in casual clothing with a doctor's coat, he was rather tall with black hair and mossy green eyes that looked through rather tacky square glasses that surprisingly looked nice on him. He looked up from the clipboard of paperwork he was glancing over to rest on her on the hospital bed. He turned to press a button on the P.A. system intercom. He spoke into it but Ashlynn was a bit too far to hear the words spoken but did realize that the man was speaking Japanese. After he got the answer he wanted he turned back to her, stood at the foot of the bed on her left side and smiled with a small bow to her and began to speak to her in Japanese. That in itself was strange and a bit alarming. Not many people save for her family and the exchange student that her family hosted for knew that she was fluent in the Japanese language. Not even her friends at school knew; it wasn't something she got around to mentioning to them.

"Ohayo Gozaimasu, Miss, my name is Ozumi Kentaro. Weren't expecting you to wake up for another few days or within the next week, you were admitted here to Namimori hospital only a three days ago, Miss..."

"Un...My name is Meagher Ashlynn..." She supplied slowly.

Dr. Ozumi nodded and wrote down on one of the pieces of paper from the stack from the clipboard. "I would like to ask you a few questions if you are feeling up to it Meagher-san. I've already called one of the staff to bring you something to eat. You're hungry right now no doubt. Once that is finished I would like to have you undergo a full physical exam. We need to do this since we seem to have some sort of malfunction in our files since we have been unable to find yours."

Ashlynn frowned. She really didn't like the sound of that. "A malfunction? And you said that this is... Namimori? I'm in Japan?"

"Yes, you are in Namimori, Japan. And as of right now Meagher-san we cannot find any trace of you in our files. We found nothing in the system. Meagher-san, you don't exist..."


"You look a little worse for wear, Doc."

Dr. Ozumi Kentaro looked up from the files scattered messily across the surface of his desk in his small office. There leaning against the open door that he didn't remember hearing being knocked on or being opened, was the woman he told the lady at the front desk to send in. Ozumi sighed and began organizing all of the paperwork into a semblance of order and motioned for the female to come in and shut the door.

"Thank you for coming in Cross-san." He thanked her as she sat down.

Dolly Cross was a slender half-French half-Japanese woman of twenty-seven; sharp dark green eyes and dark brown hair thrown up in a tight ponytail at the nape of neck. She was wearing a light blue button-up shirt and black slacks. She crossed her legs comfortably as she waited for information from the man across from her.

Dolly went straight into business. "How is she?"

"She woke up this morning, surprisingly, we weren't expecting for her to be up for at least another week at the latest and a few more days at the least. I asked her some questions while she had something to eat and since she was able to stand on her own I had her go through a physical exam," Ozumi picked one of the pages out of the stack. There was a picture of the girl though she was asleep in this one along with the information that had been gathered earlier. He read out loud for the woman sitting in front of him.

"Name is Meagher Ashlynn, light honey brown hair, dark brown eyes, she is five foot six inches. She's an American sixteen year-old born on May 11th. From what she's told me, her mother's name is Cliodhna and her father's name is Cayden. Both parents were born in Ireland before they gained American citizenship before any of their children were born. She has an older brother by the name of Flaithri and a younger sister named Norene. Her home is in Virden Illinois.

Now this is what has been bothering me, Cross-san. The name of the city she gave me does not exist; her street address does not exist along with the school she claimed that she was attending, all that is there where she pointed out is just farmland within a large county. Not only that but we haven't found a single document that proves that she and her family had ever been in the United States. I also checked with hospitals from Ireland where I had a least found the name Meagher; they were a rather well off family in Silgo but the last living member dies over thirty years ago. I know a fellow doctor in Ireland and I have asked if he could try to trace Ashlynn back to that last member. So far there hasn't been anything substantial. I've also asked information from another...contact but I have yet to get an answer from him."

Another page was taken from the stack. "She told me that she remembered walking home from school listening to music. Next thing she knows she's laying on a gurney with a nurse telling her that her parents had been called and that her mother was on the way to the hospital. Now here's a question assuming that this place actually existed: How did she get from being inside a hospital in the United States to lying in the streets of Namimori, Japan?"

"Kidnapping doesn't seem too plausible, but I had found her after a car crash in the residential areas when I was walking home. I didn't actually see the accident but there was a car backing out before they sped off and she was lying in the middle of the street. If she wasn't kidnapped then transferring her here doesn't make any sense if she had been in the U.S., they have many capable hospitals to their use. Have you informed the police to her...situation?" Dolly asked. She was frowning.

"No, no I haven't. And I don't think that their involvement would do the girl any good in all of this. They'll probably assume that since she was hit in the head that she isn't well in her mind. From what I have seen, Meagher Ashlynn is perfectly in the right state of mind. Yes she is a bit disoriented but that is to be expected. She was ran over by a car and somehow ended up in Japan. Professionally I am going to classify her as a case of Fugue."

"What's that?"

"Fugue is the result when a person might have to abruptly travel away from home, which she has, or some kind of trauma (in her case a concussion) and the mind tries to adapt itself to a brand new environment. There is an inability to remember past important aspects of one's life; and the partial or complete adoption of a new identity."

"...When will she be discharged?"

"She is healing a lot faster than we expected her to; perhaps she will be released within the next few days. Like I said when I talked you the night you admitted her into our care, I want to keep her here for observation for a night or two. It shouldn't be any more than that."

Dolly nodded. "Since she doesn't have any family in Japan and so doesn't really have any place to go, there is a vacancy in the apartment complex that I own not very far from here. The Orribu Kodachi. She can stay there until any relatives show up...or until we know what she wants to do."

Dr. Ozumi smiled with a bit of relief "That is very generous of you Cross-san. To do that for someone you had yet to formally meet."

"This certainly is the first time that I'll be taking in a stray. Would it be alright if I go and 'formally meet' her now?"


Ashlynn stared at the white ceiling in complete and utter boredom. Of course this didn't mean she didn't have a lot to think about, she did and she had a lot, she just didn't want to bring herself down to the level of brooding. It just wasn't like her to do so. So now, she was alternating her stare from the walls to the ceiling with nothing really else to do. She wasn't allowed to put too much strain on her body so she wasn't supposed to be up and about from her bed. Though Ozumi had deemed it alright that she sit on the window sill and stare out through the glass.

When Dr. Ozumi had escorted her back to the room she woke up in the other girl that had been resting in the room had been discharged and Ashlynn was left all alone in the too-white- room with nothing much to amuse herself with. This went on for two more days until she was released from the confines of the white void. Dr. Ozumi had seen her out to the woman he brought to meet her on her first day. Dolly, her name was. Ashlynn thought the woman was cool.

Dolly Cross was the person who found her in the streets of Namimori when she had been run over by a car and had called for medical assistance. Since none of her family was to be found, Dolly had offered her a place to stay (though Dolly would keep an eye on her, Ashlynn would have to take care of herself, i.e. work, school, bills, etc...) until family could be found or until Ashlynn decided she wanted to go back to the States.

This was to tide Ashlynn over until Dr. Ozumi could find how she ended up in Namimori when she had been in a hospital in the states. Because he was not going to involve the police mainly because of the concussion she had, they would have written it off as amnesia or some other symptom that caused her to make up a life out of Japan. Ozumi had actually given the possibility of her being from an entirely different world or dimension. Ashlynn did not refute his claim but made it more plausible. There wasn't a town or city by the name Namimori in Japan when she lived in the States. She would have known if there was or not since her family had hosted an exchange student (the student switched places with her brother Flaithri for three school years). The boy had taught her to speak, read, and write the language and had shown her maps online.

Once discharged, Dolly drove them to her new home in Namimori Japan. The Orribu Kodachi was a bit westernized compared to some of the other apartment complexes that she had seen on the drive over. There were two buildings total, both were two stories high with a nice pale cinnamon colored base with dark green trimmings. There was a grassy courtyard that separated the two buildings from each other. Dolly lead her to the first building and up the stairs carrying Ashlynn's school bag that she never expected to ever see again.

"Each apartment has some basic furnishings inside it," Dolly had explained to her as they went up the stairs. "There is a futon bed, dresser, and a desk in the master bedroom, a low table in the living room and outside on your balcony is where the washing machine and the dryer are. You'll come to my place for meals for the next week or so while we get you some kitchen things and I'll lend you some extra clothes until we go shopping later. We'll start tomorrow"

They walked down to the end of the hallway of the second floor to the very last door, number twenty. Dolly took out a set of keys and used one to unlock the door then showed her which was which before handing them to her along with her school messenger bag. "That one is key for your door and this one is for your mailbox. You don't need to worry about rent or other expenses for a while. I can wait until you are completely settled in and I'll help you find a job in town. We should also get you registered for the local high school. Ozumi-san has generously worked out the legal papers for you to be here in Japan as a citizen. You should thank him the next time you see him."

"I will...and thank you, Cross-san."

She nodded. "You can call me Dolly if you'd like and no suffix is fine. Now, my apartment is number one on this building on the bottom floor so if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me, I'm not a mind reader. I'll let you look around a bit. I need to go pick up my daughter from school. I'll bring takeout home tonight and I'll introduce the two of you when I come back. Unless you want to come?"

"No, that's alright...I want to look around if that's okay."

"Alright then I'll see you later, Ashlynn." Dolly though her face was blank she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder then walked back the way she came to the stairs.

Ashlynn stared at the keys in her palm then turned the knob on the door and entered her new home. It was surreal. She really didn't expect to be out of her parent's house and on her own until at least after she finished high school and even then she didn't think she would live to far away from her family. The longest she had ever been away from the States was during a few summers in Ireland. But that had been to stay with her Grandmother.

She slipped off her shoes and stepped in her socks up the little step that was normal to have in Japanese housing. She was happy to note that the walls of the apartment were a very soft pale yellow, no doubt whoever had lived here before her had painted it. The flooring through the apartment (save for the bathroom and kitchen that had tan tiles) was a light hardwood.

There was the low table of dark brown wood that Dolly said there would be and looking out through the sliding glass door, Ashlynn found the washer and dryer pushed to the far right on the balcony. She made sure that the door was locked before she moved on to the master bedroom. The dresser and the desk were white (She figured it looked nice with the yellow walls) and there was the futon bed folded over and stacked by the wall next to the window. There were two doors in the bedroom, one led to a small walk-in closest and the other revealed the master bathroom. It was a clash of Japanese and western style, there was the shower/bathtub with a blue curtain but there was also a stool and a shower head attached to the wall and the tiled floor with a drain in the middle. There was door in the bathroom where she found the toilet, sink and mirror and medicine cabinet.

Ashlynn returned to the bedroom, dropped her bag, and sat heavily on the folded futon with her back leaning against the wall.

She pushed her unbound hair behind her ears and gave a tired laugh. "Unbelievable...this is freaking unbelievable..."

She sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. "I'm in Nami-fucking-mori, Japan...Ozumi-san is convinced that the place where I lived doesn't exist...he probably thinks that I've gone crazy. I was hit in the head. But Namimori is a place in a god-damned anime! Why! Why the hell am I here! I-I WANNA GO HOME...! Mom...Dad...Flaithri...Norene...Grandma Aine...I wanna go home...I wanna go home..."

The emotional stress that she had bottled up since that Monday from the past week finally cracked and Ashlynn finally could not take anymore and broke down sobbing and crying out for her family. That was how Dolly found her with her daughter peeking from the bedroom door. When Dolly tried to calm her down it only caused more tears to form and fall down Ashlynn's cheeks. The older woman sighed sadly and put Ashlynn on her back and gave her a piggy back downstairs to Dolly's apartment. Dolly barely managed to get the distraught girl to eat anything before Ashlynn was finally put to bed in an exhausted heap.