Chapter 24

500 years in the future

Sai awoke late that morning. She rose out of her bed and stretched, yawning loudly. It was Sunday and she had plans to go out shopping with her friends, but she had a terrible headache for some reason. If it didn't go away soon, she might have to cancel. She decided to go downstairs and get breakfast and some painkillers from her mother.

"Hey mom." Sai called out.

"Yes dear?" She replied from the kitchen where she was preparing food.

"Do we have any painkillers?" Sai asked, "I woke up with a massive headache this morning."

"Were you out partying last night?" Her mother asked, getting a bottle from the cabinet and handing it to Sai.

"No mom." Sai told her, exasperated, "I was home by 10, like always. You saw that I was fine last night."

"Okay Sai. I was just making sure." Her mother said going back to cooking, "You still going out with your friends today?"

"Yeah." Sai said, sitting down at the table, "As long as this headache goes away in the next two hours."

"Alright. When you go, be careful and be smart." Her mother warned.

"We will mom." Sai told her mother, obviously tired of being treated like a kid, "Don't worry about us." Sai's mother served breakfast and Sai scarfed it down. She didn't know why, but she was extremely hungry this morning. It was like she hadn't eaten in years.

A couple hours later, Sai was walking to where she had agreed to meet her friends. Her headache had subsided and allowed her to come. She chose to wear jeans with a pink hoodie that day since it was a little cold outside. Sai hated the fall, but she had to deal with it. She met her friends at the predetermined spot and greeted them happily.

"Late as always, Sai." Akari said, laughing.

"Whatever." Sai said back, laughing with her.

"Hey." Noemi Interjected, "Let's get going."

"Yeah, seriously." Hinata agreed.

"Alright, fine." Sai said. Sai and Akari gathered themselves and the group headed off to the mall.

They spent the next few hours shopping. Each of them ended up with a couple bags of new clothes before they went to the food court to get something to eat before heading home to put all their new stuff away and get started on the massive amount of homework that they all had. They sat down with their food and began to eat and talk. Sai finished quickly and got up to go to the bathroom before they left. Before she had taken three steps, something caught Sai's eye. There was a boy across the large room sitting with two girls, probably his sisters by the look of them. Sai knew that she had never met this boy, but she felt like she knew him and, oddly, she felt drawn to him. Something in her desperately wanted to go talk to him. Suddenly, a flash of white hot pain shot through Sai's head. It was pure agony and made Sai drop to her knees holding her head and moaning slightly. Her friends immediately got up and came to her aid.

"Sai!" Akari yelled out in a worried voice, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"My head." Sai groaned, "My head hurts so bad. I feel like I'm going to-". At that moment, Sai fell over, unconscious. The boy across the room looked over, concerned.

Kaze had never seen the girl that was lying unconscious on the floor in his life. The weird thing was, though, that this girl's pain made him extremely sad. Two paramedics that were in the food court rushed to the girl's aid. Her nose had started to bleed profusely. Something was seriously wrong with her and the medics were calling for an ambulance.

"What's wrong with that girl?" Kaze asked his sisters.

"I'm not sure." Nami said.

"I don't know either." Umi agreed, "But what I do know is that before she dropped, she gave you the weirdest look. You know her?"

"Never seen her before in my life." Kaze told them, "But for some reason I feel really bad about what's happening to her. More than I feel like I should for a stranger."

"Yeah I got that too actually." Umi said.

"Me too." Nami chimed in, "That's really weird."

"They're taking her to the hospital. I'm going to go visit her once they've got her settled." Kaze told them, "I want to figure out who she is."

"You do what you want." Nami said dismissively, "There are plenty of cute guys to keep us company." Kaze rolled his eyes and got up. By the time he walked to the hospital, the nurses would probably have the girl settled and he would be able to see her. Kaze wanted to figure out who she was, but that really wasn't the main reason that he was going. The real reason was because he felt like he was supposed to go see her for some reason. It was a feeling he couldn't ignore.

Sai had awoken in the hospital about an hour ago. Her parents had just left to let her rest. They had come as soon as they had gotten the call from the hospital. None of the doctors knew what had happened to her, but they were running blood tests at that very moment to try to figure it out. Suddenly, Sai heard a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" Sai called out.

"You've got a visitor." Came a nurse's voice.

"Who is it?" Sai asked.

"He won't say." The nurse responded, "He said that you'd know him when you saw him." This confused Sai. She didn't understand why anyone would hide their identity from her.

"Okay." Sai said after a moment, "Let him in." The door opened and a boy walked through. The door closed behind him. Sai's jaw dropped. It was that boy.

"It-it's... It's you..." Sai stammered.

"You know me?" The boy questioned.

"No." Sai told him, "I have no idea who you are, but I feel like I should. Plus I got this headache as soon as I saw you."

"What?" Kaze asked, confused, "Why would that be?"

"I have no idea." Sai admitted, "I was hoping that you could tell me."

"Sorry I can't." Kaze told her, "I don't even know who you are."

"Why are you here then? No offense, but I just don't get it." Sai said bluntly.

"Neither do I." Kaze said, "I just felt like I was supposed to come. I couldn't really fight it." Sai blushed. She didn't know why, but she couldn't help it. This boy was... special to her. He kept talking, "So are you alright?"

"I think so. Being stuck in here kinda sucks, though." Sai said. Then a thought hit her, "Hey. What's your name?"

"Kaze." He told her simply. As the last syllable left his mouth, a flood of emotions, thoughts, and images ran through her mind. None of them made any sense, but they all seemed familiar. They were almost more real than her actual memories, but that couldn't be right. These were full of demons, war, and this boy. Kaze noticed her glazed over eyes.

"Hey!" He shouted, "Hey! Are you okay?" Sai snapped back to reality.

"Um... Yeah..." Sai lied, "Just zoned out for a second."

"Don't do that." Kaze said, relieved, "You worried me."

"You were worried about me?" Sai asked, happiness unexplainably flooding her. Kaze blushed.

"Uh... Yeah... I didn't want you... um... passing out again." Kaze admitted, "Hey. I've told you my name. What's yours?"

"My name's Saiai." She told him. The boy's eyes glazed over just like hers had. Like she had expected, the same thing that happened to her was happening to him now. The images were hitting him.

"Sai?" He said, confused.

"You just called me by my nickname. How did you know that?" Sai demanded.

"I don't know." Kaze said honestly, "I just kinda knew."

"That's really weird." Sai said starting to get a little scared. It showed in her voice. Kaze grabbed her hand tightly, surprising Sai. There was an intense look in his eyes.

"Hey." He said, "Don't be scared. You're gonna be okay." Then his eyes softened and darted to where his hand was over Sai's. He blushed heavily and immediately removed it. "Sorry. I don't know why I did that. I-" Sai cut him off.

"Don't apologize." Sai said bluntly, "It was... Nice..." They say there awkwardly for a few moments until Sai broke the silence. "Hey Kaze?"

"Yeah?" He responded.

"We only just met, but we obviously know each other from somewhere. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but I think we were really close. The second I heard your name, my heart skipped a beat. All of these emotions and images, I guess they're memories, about you flooded my head then too. You knew my nickname and you comforted me by instinct. None of that makes any sense unless we know each other."

"I get what you're saying. I got the same flood of stuff when you told me your name. The problem is, I know for a fact that I've never met you before." Kaze told her.

"Then why are you here?" Sai asked bluntly. Kaze couldn't answer. He didn't know, especially not anymore. Sai nodded and continued, "I don't remember you either, but something is obviously going on. If we stay together, we might figure it out."

"Hmm..." Kaze said, pondering the situation, "But whatever is making us forget all of this stuff, couldn't it be dangerous?"

"It probably is." Sai admitted, "But we don't know that for a fact and I need to know. Plus, I don't think I could stop myself from being with you. I feel... Drawn to you."

"Same." Kaze agreed. Then a thought hit him, "Hey Sai. My sisters were in those memories. You think they have anything to do with this?"

"Probably." Sai told him, "They were in mine too."

"I'm going to bring them here. Maybe they can help us figure this out once we get them to start remembering things." Kaze turned around and started to walk towards the door.

"Hey!" Sai called out, stopping Kaze in his tracks, "Don't be gone too long okay." Kaze smiled.

"I promise. I'll be back soon." And with that he left.

Kaze's mind was reeling. What that girl, Sai, had said made perfect sense. It shouldn't have. It should have sounded purely ridiculous. People don't just have their memories erased and replaced. Plus, all of the other stuff was full of demons and death. Why would he want to go back to that, even if it was real? But then Kaze thought about the last memories he'd gotten glimpses of. They were of him and Sai, happy together. The way he felt when he saw those was unexplainable, but he did know one thing. Whoever he really was, he loved that girl and she loved him.

Kaze arrived at his house and burst through the door calling for his sisters.

"Nami! Umi! Get down here!" Kaze yelled out.

"What?!" Nami called back, worry clear in her voice as she rushed down the stairs with her sister right behind her, "What's wrong?"

"It's that girl we saw in the mall, the one that passed out and got taken to the hospital." Kaze said urgently.

"What?" Umi said confused, "What about her?"

"We know her." Kaze said bluntly.

"There's no way Kaze." Nami said, "I've never seen that girl in my life. Just calm down and tell us what is going on."

"We do know her!" Kaze yelled back, "That's the thing. We just can't remember that we do! She is having the same problem! She passed out because she saw me and it was too much of a shock to her body."

"Kaze, you're not making any sense." Umi said, starting to get worried about her brother's sanity.

"Just come see her with me." Kaze begged, "I promise, the second she tells you her name, things will start coming back to you. It happened to me." The sisters begrudgingly agreed, only for the sake of hopefully showing Kaze that he was being crazy, and Kaze rushed them off to where Sai was.

Sai was getting worried. She had told herself not to, but she couldn't help it. Kaze had been gone so long. Sai laughed to herself. She was worried like a wife about a guy that she didn't even know. But she did know him. And she deep down, she knew that she loved him. The worst part about, though, was she didn't know why.

The nurse's voice came from behind the door.

"Miss, that boy is here again. This time he has two girls with him, though. He says that they are his sisters." A flood of relief washed over Sai.

"Let them in, please." She called to the nurse. The door opened and the three familiar faces stepped through it. It closed behind them.

"Hey guys." Sai said, "Longtime, no see." This made Kaze chuckle, but the sisters seemed weirded out.

"Hey..." Nami began, "Okay. Kaze explained some of this stuff on the way over, but none of it makes sense. Apparently, none of this is our real lives and you're supposed to have dog ears and fangs. Thing is, though, I've lived her my whole life and I've got the memories to prove it. And nobody has damn dog ears. This has gotta be some big delusion, so let's get this over with and solved."

"Ask me my name." Sai said simply.

"What?" Nami said, taken off guard.

"Ask me my name." Sai repeated. Nami rolled her eyes, but eventually conceded.

"What's your name?" Nami asked.

"My name is Sai." She told them. Then the twins dropped to their knees. Their eyes were glazed over. It was working. It was happening to them too. After a few moments, they came to their senses again.

"What the hell?" Umi whispered to herself.

"Told ya." Kaze said.

"So what are your names?" Sai asked the sisters. They got up slowly before answering.

"I'm Nami." One said.

"And I'm Umi." Said the other. Then the flood of memories and emotions hit Sai again. Everything was starting to come together. Things started to piece themselves together in her head as the memories kept coming. Eventually they stopped and Sai came back to reality. Sai shook her head to get her bearings back. They still had to find one more person.