Disclaimer: I don't own anything – wait, let me just check my wallet. Nope, I've got nothing!
A/N: Wait, what? An update? Nah. That's not what this is. You're crazy.
Just kidding, here's another long-ish chapter for you to enjoy. You should check out my bio, I usually do status updates on where I'm at with the next chapter and an estimate on when I'll post next.
On another note, thank you to everyone who reviewed/followed/etc. I love hearing what you guys think about the story; it really helps me out knowing if I'm doing something right. So please keep those reviews coming :)
An extra thanks to Azuki Bean who has reviewed every chapter so far. I always look forward to you reviews.
Just a heads up, this chapter starts off a little… different. Let me know what you think.
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Chapter 5: Waking Dream
It was the light from an early rising sun that awoke me, jarring my mind into consciousness. My own fault, no doubt. I mustn't have closed the blinds the night before. The sun was warm, though, and I had to admit that waking to the rising sun did feel a lot more poetic than an alarm clock.
Speaking of alarm clocks…
I rolled over and checked the time.
06:08
My alarm wouldn't be going off for a while yet. But still, I was awake. I should probably start getting my stuff together. Today was an important day, after all.
The body next to me stirred and I giggled as a hand snuck out from under the mound of blankets to snatch my wrist before I could go very far from the bed.
"…Wha'imeizzit?" Came a muffled mutter from beneath the blankets before Shane's head appeared out from beneath the mound. With his bleary eyes and mussed hair, I couldn't help but reach over and try to pat it down.
"It's nearly ten past six," I said, stepping away and attempting to gently tug my hand back, but his grip remained firm.
He scowled. "This is… Uhhh." He stopped for a moment to yawn, bringing up his other hand to cup in front of his mouth. "This is ridiculous. Come back to bed."
I rolled my eyes. "C'mon, Shane. You know I need to go into the university today."
"Mmm? Why's that?"
I fought the urge to roll my eyes again.
"I have to present my dissertation to Professor Godfrey today to see—"
"The handsy one?" Shane pulled himself out of his nest of blankets – which he had pulled from me during the night (honestly the man was just as bad as a child) – and sat up against the headboard.
"What does that even mean?" I asked, perhaps a little too sharply.
He blinked at me innocently – too innocently. "He's the one who likes to be a little too familiar with his PhD students, isn't he?"
"Maybe…" I acquiesced. "But it's a harmless thing. You know, like an old man in a home pinching a nurse's bottom. He doesn't mean anything by it."
His look turned cutting. "He's pinched your bottom?"
I laughed again and leaned over to place a kiss on his forehead. "Nothing like that, I promise." I pulled back. "Now, stop being so possessive and go make me some breakfast. And a sandwich."
"You like it when I'm possessive." He said. His eyes turning mischievous for a second before his face morphed into his very best puppy-dog face, his eyes gazing up at me innocently. "How about you come back to bed and I make you something else…?"
"No. No way. Not today. I don't want to be running late. I need to be on top of things today." I walked over to the dressing table and began picking out clothes for me to wear for the day.
His big, brown eyes blinked at me sadly. "You could be on top of me to-"
"No!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"'Yes', you'll be on top?" He asked hopefully.
"No!"
"So you want to me to be on top?"
I'm going to kill him. I was truly going to kill him. "Neither! No snuggles for you this morning."
"Please…?"
"Stop it! It's not going to happen. And that's that!" I stomped my foot for good measure.
.
.
"Goddamnit! I hate you!" I raced around the room picking up my strewn about clothing.
Shane gazed up at the ceiling, his hands behind his head with the biggest, smuggest grin on his face that I had ever seen.
"I'm probably going to be late because of you!"
"Meh. I don't mind." He said, turning over in our bed to watch me dash around, his eyes following me almost lazily.
"Of course you don't!" Where were my blasted socks? "Some of us actually have to get up before 9 a.m. to get to our jobs!"
"Isn't that a shame? You should probably start rethinking you career choice if it's going to be like this all the time – for my sake." That self-satisfied grin was still on his face.
"Shut up," I snapped.
I finally found and retrieved my pair of socks from where they had been – ahem – kicked under the bed. I didn't look at Shane's face again as I shuffled into the bathroom. I slammed the door behind me though, locking it for good measure.
I didn't need Shane getting any more ideas.
After having my long overdue shower, I found Shane preparing breakfast as I stepped into the adjoined dining room.
"Nothing special," Shane called over the hiss of the frying pan. "Just bacon and some scrambled eggs."
"Oh good." I replied, sitting down to put on my shoes. "How's my sandwich coming along?"
He half-turned to face me. "You were serious about that?"
"Always am."
He scoffed, and turned back to the pan. "You know," he began. "Since you never watch them – and we're running out of space – I think you should consider getting rid of your anime collection."
"Never." No hesitation.
"But at least just-"
"Over my dead body." No hesitation there, either. I was quite proud of myself.
He sighed. "At least take a look. You don't have to get rid of all of them. We can even just move some of your less favourite ones up into the ceiling, just so we can.
This time it was turn to sigh. May the anime gods forgive me, but I was okay with that compromise. "Fine… But don't blame me if I'm hostile towards you for the next few weeks."
He turned to face me, his lips tugging into a slight smirk. "I think I can manage."
"Prick…" I muttered, standing up.
"I heard that!"
I moved into our matchbox-sized living room and went straight for the shelf holding our DVD collections. There were several DVDs belonging to Shane – and a few games that he played – but most belonged to me. TV shows like Bones, The Mindy Project and Supernatural; some cartoon series including The Legend of Korra; a tonne of anime series like Bleach, Soul Eater, Naruto—
Naruto…
That word. There was something about it. Something about that one word that raised some flags. Something wasn't quite right about it. Sure, I remembered watching the series many years ago, laughing at Naruto's antics, getting annoyed at Sasuke's overall character, wanting to throttle Sakura for her uselessness, chuckling at Kakashi's fanatical fascination with the Icha Icha series…
Wait.
Kakashi…?
A boy around Kurenai's age stood at our open backdoor, in easy view of the antics going on in the kitchen and dining room. He stood only a little taller than Kurenai did but had a shock of silver-grey hair on his head and a mask from his uniform stretched over the lower half of his face.
…And without ever seeing this boy before I knew exactly who he was.
The images and thoughts – almost like memories – slammed unbidden into my mind and I physically stooped under their invisible weight.
They seemed too much like memories. And why had I thought about Kurenai...? Kurenai wasn't even an important character to the series. The show only ever showed her in one or two fight scenes…
It's funny how I based a character's importance to the show by the amount of fight scenes that they were in.
My world wavered.
There was… something. In my head. Something I couldn't quite place, except that it told me that where I was, was wrong. What I was thinking was wrong. Whom I loved was wrong.
What is your name?
The question took me by surprise and I hesitated. I knew my name. Of course I did… Didn't I?
I mean, how could I not?
But the name I possessed wasn't the name that the voice wanted.
What is your name?
Chelsea, I offered to the voice. My name is Chelsea.
What is your name?
I didn't know. I had no idea.
What. Is. Your. Name?
I don't know, I prayed to the voice. I don't know what name you're asking for!
"Hey Chelsea," Shane said as he appeared in the living room doorway. "Have you seen Kurenai?"
"What did you just say?"
"I said, 'have you seen my car keys?'"
"Oh."
"I hope you see Sakumo again…"
"What?"
He frowned. "I said, 'I hope they're not in my sock draw again'. Hey, are you feeling okay?"
No. No, I wasn't.
Sakumo… As in Sakumo Hatake? Kakashi's dad?
Everything flickered again, and then winked out. Voices flooded my senses – my hearing, sight and taste. It was an impossible reaction to sound but I felt it. More and more voices joined the cacophony in my head.
"Kurei, Kagura-san. This is my son, Kakashi. Kakashi, this Kurei and Kagura-san, and their daughters Kurenai-san and Ayaka-hime."
…
"Hi, I'm Ayaka. Sakumo-sama has told me so much about you, Kakashi-kun."
…
"What's your name?"
"A-Ayaka Yūhi."
…
"I like you."
…
"…Hi. My name is Ayaka."
…
The images – memories – were flooding in now, cramming their way into my brain, burning, stretching, reminding… How could I have forgotten my own name?
I knew now. I knew who I was.
And this… this world. Wasn't real… This world didn't belong to me. I wasn't a part of it. At least, not anymore. Perhaps I had been once. Once, when I was still Chelsea; but I was not her anymore. Her time had come and gone, and it was time for someone new to take centre-stage.
"Chelsea! What's wrong?" Shane knelt before me, his hand stretching to land on my back.
I recoiled and pulled away.
"Chelsea, calm down! Are you sick?" He sounded panicked, but it wasn't real.
"This isn't real…"
"What do you mean?" Shane asked. "What are you trying to say?"
"You're not real!"
"Chelsea! I'm right here! Of course I'm real!"
"No. You're not." I said, scuttling further away as Shane began to shuffle closer. "None of this is real. This is all just made-up!"
"No! No, it's not!" He sounded pained now. He kept moving forward, as if desperate to touch me – to reassure me. To convince me to stay.
But this wasn't home. It was just some farce – some illusion – conjured up to distract me.
Distract me from what?
"Chelsea, please," he choked. "I'll let you keep your DVDs! I'll do anything! Just don't go anywhere!"
"I need to go home."
"No. You don't! That's not your home. Your home is here with me! You're safer here with me!" Shane almost shouted at me. "You don't understand! You don't want to go back—you shouldn't want to go back! Trust me. You trust me, don't you?"
"I don't know you." Chelsea had known him, I didn't.
He gaped at me for a second, but recovered quickly. "But I know you, Chelsea, and—"
"My name isn't Chelsea."
The walls began to spin around us, and from seemingly nowhere a familiar middle-aged couple were suddenly standing over Shane's shoulder, looking down at me.
"Don't leave us, my darling," the woman said, her light-coloured hair pulled up into a severe bun and the eyes behind her glass swimming. The middle-aged man on her arm had crows feet around his eyes and the edges of his dark hair was beginning to grey.
"Mum…? Dad…?" I breathed.
"Live, Seashell," Dad – no, the man – said, looking at me sadly. "Live with us. Live for your future. Don't leave. Don't make us go on without you."
"B-but," I choked, nearly crying out. "You're not real!"
"Of course, we're real," the woman soothed softly. "Chelsea…"
"My name isn't Chelsea!" I practically screamed. I wanted them to go away. I didn't belong here. They didn't belong here!
Shane stared at me for a moment, blinking fast. He made a move to touch me again but his hand fell short. "Then what is your name?"
What is your name?
"What is your name?" Chelsea's parent's intoned together at the same moment. Their monotony was almost scary.
What is your name?
I took a deep breath, centring myself. My mind cleared and the name came to me almost like a nerve reflex – involuntarily and uncontrollable. The name burst from my lips. "Ayaka Yūhi – my name is Ayaka Yūhi. And I want to go home."
I felt a light tingling sensation all over my body as I changed. My hair darkened, the planes of my face rearranged, my eyes changed colours; my whole body shortened and thinned to that of a five-year-old girl.
Chelsea's parents gave me a horrified look, but it was Shane who made a desperate grab for me.
"No! Wait – you don't want to go back! Trust me! There's danger-!"
The world around us shuddered, flickering and trembling. And then everything began to fold in upon itself, as if it were made of paper. Chelsea's parents. The walls. The DVD collection and TV. And then Shane himself. All of it disappearing into itself until there was nothing left except darkness. Even the floor below me had disappeared. I was sitting – floating, perhaps? – in darkness, unable to determine if I were facing up or down, spinning or still, rising or falling.
And through it all, Shane's words echoed back to me.
There's danger…
What could he possibly mean by that?
.
.
I awoke slowly and pleasantly, stretching the kinks and knots from my shoulders and arms as I yawned widely. It had been a good sleep. A very good sleep. I must have slept like a log and slept right through any attempts Mama could have made to rouse me.
That dream though…
I stretched again. My mattress was so, so soft. I could almost imagine drifting off again…
But no. I had to get up. I had to get to the Academy, and my classes. Papa would get mad if he thought I was ditching my training to just lay around in bed all day. Yeah, he definitely wouldn't be pleased.
But my eyes were so heavy. I tried to force them open but they only just quickly sealed closed again. I must have been really tired last night.
Blindly, I reached out for the bottle of water I kept on my bedside table. My mouth was so dry; it felt like it was stuffed with cotton. At first I touched nothing, then the back of my hand knocked over something hard and it hit the ground with a startling crash.
That woke me up.
I started forward in bed, heart hammering and my eyes snapping open.
This… this wasn't my bedroom. Actually, this wasn't even a room in my house, it almost looked like a… a hospital room? I looked down to the floor. Shards of glass and flowers littered the floor. It had obviously been a vase – in its past life. Not anymore.
Past life…
My dream… It had been so strange. So very vivid and foreboding. And those people… I had known them. They were people who had been important to me. I tried to recall their names – their faces – but the dream was slipping away the more I tried to grasp at it. I remembered the events – the warning that I was in danger – but who exactly were these people? I had known them while I was in the dream, but then again, no one really questions anything when they're dreaming.
Except me. I had known that it wasn't real.
My head was starting to hurt.
"Ayaka!"
I glanced up, seeing Mama and Papa rush into the room followed by a haggard nurse. But something was off with them. I could see that they were my parents but I could see something else too. It seemed familiar.
It took me only a short moment to understand that it was not what I was seeing – it was what I was feeling.
That warmth.
The sparking threads. They weren't precisely visible, but I could sense them. Somehow. Just like I had with Kurenai.
"Ayaka! Thank goodness, you're awake!" Mama cried, darting around to the side of the bed that didn't have glass all over the floor and hugging me tight to her chest. I allowed myself to be swallowed by her arms and pushed my face into her chest. It felt nice to be held like this.
I looked up. Papa was watching me from the foot of the hospital bed. He looked… tired, but I could see the small smile of relief on his face that made me feel guilty that I had worried them.
Wait—where was Kurenai?
"Otou-san. Kaa-san." I mumbled. My throat was so dry it was hard to get any sound out. I licked my lips and tried again. "Otou-san, Kaa-san, w-why am I-?" I managed to choke out before I began a coughing fit.
Mama pushed a cup of water into my hands and I drained it without thought, holding it out for more. I watched the nurse sweep up the shards of glass and broken flowers with a broom as Mama filled the cup again from the jug of water on a table nearby.
We were silent as I drained two more cups of water and the nurse left the room, having swept all the debris into a dustpan, before anyone spoke.
"Ayaka," Papa pressed gently. "Do you remember what happened?"
What had happened?
"Yes," I said, glad to feel that the words were coming out a lot easier now. "We… we were sparring. You were there." I glanced up at Papa. He seemed to be waiting for me to continue. "And then something happened. My head was hurting. And then what was hurting my head started to hurt Kurenai."
Silence fell over the room once again. I sat there, in the bed, watching Mama and Papa as they looked at me for what felt like an eternity before I felt the overwhelming need to fill the void between us.
"Otou-san. Is Kurenai… okay? Where is she?" I could feel my lips trembling as the questions tumbled out of them. I had to know. I blinked quickly in a vain attempt to keep the tears at bay.
Papa smiled. "Yes, she's fine. Don't worry about her. She's awake and talking." I breathed a sigh of relief. "You slept through the whole night and most of today."
"Huh?" I couldn't help but gape. How long had I been unconscious?
Mama laughed. "You've been asleep for nearly twenty-four hours. It's almost four in the afternoon. You were very chakra exhausted, and then you got a fever during the night and you were speaking nonsense. Your father and I had couldn't make sense of what you were saying."
A fever? But I felt fine. Oh. The dream. It must have been a fever-dream…
That would make sense.
But still… I wasn't convinced.
And sheesh, it was already four in the afternoon? I was so not going to get to sleep tonight.
"Do you know what happened yesterday? What made me use all of my chakra? Is it my fault? Did I do something wrong?" I rushed out, suddenly remembering my utterly useless and feeble attempts to stop the hands from grabbing at Kurenai. Perhaps everyone encountered these "hands" upon using chakra and just hadn't told me about it…
Unlikely.
I shuddered. I didn't want to have to think about them. I just wanted to shove them far, far away in the back of my head and forget that they had ever emerged.
But it just wasn't that easy.
I had to confront this. To make sure that this would never happen again. I had heard stories – Mama would tell them to me at bedtime – of shinobi with too strong a skill accidently hurting those around them, as well as spurned individuals who made desperate deals for power that always came back to haunt them.
I had to understand what was happening to me. Maybe then I could stop it from happening again.
Mama and Papa shared a look before Mama jumped to answer me. "Of course it wasn't your fault, honey. It was just a freak accident."
But their hesitation had been answer enough.
"What happened to her – to Kurenai. Really."
Papa sighed, running a hand through his hair. "She was put under a very strong genjutsu, we think."
"You think?"
"Yes, that's what we believe."
"But you don't know for sure?"
"…No."
"Oh-kay." I looked down, clasping my hands together in my lap. "Was I…? Did I do that? Was I the one who made that genjutsu? It didn't feel like a genjutsu."
Mama and Papa shared another look with each other, communicating silently. After a while, they seemed to come to some kind of an agreement as they both turned back to face me without a word being uttered.
"…Yes. That's what your father and I think." Mama said, taking my hand and squeezing it gently.
"But it didn't feel like a genjutsu," I reiterated, as if it were a valid excuse for what I had caused. "It felt like something else entirely."
Mama's shoulders sagged in defeat at my admission, and Papa's face twisted into a stern frown.
I realised something at that moment. "You know something about this."
They didn't answer, only continued to look at me.
"You have to tell me what's happening to me," I begged. "I need to learn to control it so that it won't happen again and—"
"Enough!" Papa interrupted sharply.
"Kurei…" Mama said gently, turning to face her husband. "I think it might be a good idea to tell her."
Papa frowned at her for a moment before he turned back to face me. He seemed to consider his next words carefully before he spoke them. "Ayaka. Your mother and I have something very important that we need to tell you." He stopped speaking; looking suddenly conflicted.
If he says that I'm adopted, I am going to flip out.
"We think that you may have an… ability from your mothers' side of the family…" Papa said slowly, treading carefully.
My mother's side of the family…? Okay, so I'm not adopted. Good. What ability? I looked at Mama but her eyes were downcast as if she were ashamed. Or scared. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why we didn't speak about her side of the family. Kurenai had already told me that she had managed to figure out that Mama was born to a shinobi clan, but not which clan – obviously not one of the larger ones.
"Kaa-san?" I asked quietly. "You were born to a shinobi clan, weren't you? What is Otou-san talking about? What ability?"
Mama said nothing, just shook her head noncommittally.
"Yes, your mother was born to a shinobi clan. We don't talk about them because they didn't approve of your mother's… choices." As in, Mama married whom she wanted to. "This clan was once great and widely feared due to the ability they wielded – the kekkai genkai they possessed – but in recent times the number of clansmen born with the kekkai genkai has fallen to one every generation – if they're lucky."
So… was Papa telling me that he thought that I had a kekkai genkai? Received from a family that I didn't know. I tried to think of all the clans I knew of that possessed kekkai genkai. The Hyūga (I was definitely not one of them); the Uchiha (possibly, though Mama didn't look like any of the Uchiha that I had ever seen); the Senju (that wouldn't make any sense, their kekkai genkai was the Wood-style, not mental hands that could enter other peoples' minds). What other clans in Konoha could there be?
I couldn't think of any.
The Yamanaka's, Nara's and Akimichi's were all prominent clans, but their abilities were due to keeping their techniques secret, rather than being due to an actual innate ability.
Yeah, I was out of ideas.
"So you think that I have this… kekkai genkai?" I asked, my stomach sinking. I had overheard Papa telling Mama about the massacres of people with kekkai genkai in Kirigakure – the Hidden Mist village – whether they were loyal shinobi or innocent children.
"Yes," Mama answered, meeting my eyes for the first time. "Usually it isn't bad but when it culminates unexpectedly…" She left the sentence go unfinished.
But what did this kekkai genkai actually do? I thought back to what I had felt during the spar yesterday and found that the memories came back surprisingly easily for me. The hands made of chakra scratching around inside my head were a little too hard to forget. I shuddered. I had stepped toward Kurenai and pressed my fingers to her forehead and my chakra had surged forward into her mind.
Much like a genjutsu.
Except that I hadn't needed to concentrate. I hadn't directed my chakra to do that – I wasn't sure if I was even at that level of control where I could pull off a genjutsu that could incapacitate someone for a few hours. And the sheer amount of chakra that would have been needed to… well, no wonder I had fainted from exhaustion.
Papa must have been following my line of thought because he confirmed my suspicions. "It's a proficiency with genjutsu and an influence over the human mind so great that you can literally kill with genjutsu alone."
I blinked in surprise. "B-but that's impossible!" I squawked, gawking at both my parents. "Genjutsu are just illusions. How can you kill someone with only using illusions?"
Papa looked to Mama for an explanation.
"My clan has dwindled considerably since the days before the founding of Konoha," she began, looking as if she had swallowed something sour. "The kekkai genkai of my family has diluted throughout that time too, to the point where everyone has an above aptitude for genjutsu – myself included – but do not inherit the kekkai genkai in its entirety. But sometimes a member of the clan is born with the full kekkai genkai – not the diluted one that the rest of us have.
"This ability – the Usosekai – makes it possible to kill a person through genjutsu because it takes complete control over key parts of the brain, such as the medulla oblongata, which is key in controlling involuntary functions such as heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing. The Usosekai allows an individual to control these things within the body, essentially making it possible to persuade the body into having a heart attack or to stop breathing altogether. That's what makes it possible to kill someone using genjutsu. Are you following, Ayaka?"
I nodded. It was just… a lot to take in. That I would be able to do this. The prospect that I would be able to get inside a persons' head and persuade their body to just die made me feel a little nauseous.
"So if I were to cast a genjutsu of a blizzard then…?"
"It's a little more complicated than that, but yes, your victim could die of hypothermia. But it's very difficult to just kill someone using genjutsu. You have to have access parts of the brain that other genjutsu users would never dream of being able to reach." Mama stated.
It was a relief to hear her say that I wouldn't just be able to think someone to death, that just maybe I wouldn't accidentally kill my loved ones with a stray thought or ill-tempered emotion. But something still didn't sit right with me – memories of my past life had re-emerged after the strange dream I'd had. I could remember things about this world that I could only remember knowing when I was an infant. It was an alienating feeling, the concept that I was remembering aspects of my past life that pertained to my future.
But I remembered.
Not everything, but enough to make sense of what was happening. And what was going to happen. Sakumo… I remembered how his storyline was going to end – and how it affected Kakashi. They didn't deserve what was going to happen to them. It wasn't fair. But maybe I could make a difference. Sakumo was rumoured to have been at least as strong – if not stronger – than the Sannin themselves, I would be doing Konoha a great disservice if I left Sakumo to his fate.
"It's a lot to take in, I know." Mama said gently, bringing me from my reverie.
They truly had no idea…
"Ayaka," Papa said sternly, moving to stand beside me so I had to crane my neck to look at him. "You can't tell anyone about this, do you understand me?"
Yes. I nodded, feeling a little intimidated by his intensity.
I knew for the obvious reasons not to tell anyone that I had a kekkai genkai that would turn me into a 'killing machine'. I wasn't scared so much of Kirigakure's persecution, rather than the prospect of more immediate dangers like ROOT or Orochimaru finding out that a girl from a small shinobi family with no considerable connections had the ability to persuade people to just drop dead. And while I could easily see it as being used as a force for good, I could just as easily see it being abused and myself being coerced or tortured into using it to hurt innocents.
Man, my imagination was going overboard today.
A sudden thought struck me. "Wait—what about Kurenai? Does she have the Usos-thing—the ability?"
"No," Papa replied. "It's possible that she inherited the aptitude-for-genjutsu aspect from your mother's family, but other than that—no. But don't worry we'll have you back to your old self in no time."
My old self?
"What do you mean, Otou-san?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it too much, Ayaka. The Hokage has decided – and we agree - to get a fuinjutsu specialist in to seal away the Usosekai so that this won't happen again." Papa informed me.
I was stunned. He was just going to lock it away? Shouldn't this ability be nurtured? It would definitely give me an edge above everybody else – friends and enemies alike. It just didn't make sense to seal away an ability – my ability – that had so much potential, and I told Papa as such.
"Like I said, Ayaka. We don't want a repeat of what happened yesterday during the spar. You don't want something like that to happen again, do you?" I felt immediately chastened, my ire dissipating. He was right. It wouldn't be worth keeping if it were only just going to explode in my family's faces and mine. "Perhaps," Papa continued. "One day you may come to the stage where you are ready to learn how to use it, or the seal weakens so gradually that you acclimatise to it slowly, but that day is not today."
.
.
I had to see her, I thought, walking down the hospital corridor towards Kurenai's room.
The same haggard nurse who had cleaned up the vase I had broken had come in earlier to usher my parents out of the room, clucking something about keeping me in the hospital overnight for observation.
Not much later, I had jumped out of bed and bugged an intern into telling me where my sister's room was.
Room 39…
Room 40…
Room—Ah! Room 42. The room Kurenai was in.
I stepped inside, closing the door softly behind me. The curtain was closed around the only occupied bed in the room and I made my way quietly towards it. There was a soft glow from a lamp coming from behind the curtain that dimly lit the dark room, so I knew that there was a good chance that she was awake. I took a deep breath and clasped my trembling hands together, afraid that she might be changing or sleeping and I she might get angry with me for disturbing her.
I could only hope that she didn't hate me for putting her in the hospital to begin with.
I took a quick peek around the curtain.
And let out the deep breath that I hadn't even been aware that I had been holding.
Kurenai was sitting up in her hospital bed, reading by the lamp on her bedside table. She looked up as I entered her space, smiling politely.
"Nee-san! I'm so glad you're okay!" I raced forward and hugged her, fighting hard to hold back the tears.
I felt immediately that something was very wrong. Kurenai had gone very stiff all of a sudden and she wasn't hugging back – she always hugged back.
I pulled back, seeing her face looking at me with bemused surprise.
"Onee-san…?"
"I'm sorry… Do I know you?" She asked confusedly, blinking fast and putting down her book.
Huh?
"I-I-I'm-" I stopped, thrown by her question, I couldn't recollect myself. I took a deep breath. "I'm Ayaka, silly." Upon her blank look, I added. "Your sister."
Kurenai looked puzzled. "I don't have a sister."
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A/N: WHAT! Another cliff-hanger?! God, I hate myself sometimes.
Also! I should probably apologise for not updating sooner. I've been kept busy with university stuff so my free time to write is extremely narrow. I'm also going to have to do some work on plotting out the next few chapters so the next update might not be for a while (hopefully not though).
Anyway, what did y'all think of Chelsea and Shane? Obviously, it was more dream than memory, but there were some very real aspects to the dream that were really a part of Ayaka past/Chelsea's life, namely, Chelsea's large collection of anime and that she was writing a dissertation. Huh? Oh yeah, I guess Shane can be real too ;)
And what the hell happened to Kurenai? That's so freaking weird. Imagine your sibling/parent/cat just forgetting who you were. It'd definitely lead to some trouble.
Interesting but useless information about the author and other stuff:
Throughout the entire Twilight saga, there are 24 minutes of just staring.
Robert Downey Jr. was once arrested after he was caught driving naked in his Porsche with cocaine, heroine and a .357 magnum (fyi – that's not a type of ice-cream).
I'm piggybacking off of my university's free WiFi to upload this to you guys.
Carrie Fisher wore no underwear in Star Wars because George Lucas convinced her "there is no underwear in outer-space".
Drinking 2 cups of cold water on an empty stomach can boost metabolism by 30% (you should still eat though).
I'm not sure about other countries, but in Australia we have "caps" on our internet, whereby you pay for a certain amount of gigabytes worth of bandwidth a month and if that amount is exceeded your internet is either slowed down to prehistoric speeds or completely cut-off.
Ancient Greeks believed that red heads would turn into vampires after they died.
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If you have a moment, please drop me a review.