The Past— A World of Dreams
It had been almost five years; five long years since she had seen his face last, and even then she could hardly remember what it was about his tender face that made her wish they would never part again. It was that notorious accident in 7th grade that brought them together during a time when children believed they are, in fact, indestructible no matter the situation. Sakura hadn’t gone on the trip up north with her other classmates, however, she was there the entire remainder of the time, after the incident at Mt. Sukuba. Once her mother, Sayaka, caught word that there had been an accident concerning her son and another boy, she and Sakura rushed to the hospital; her husband, Tetsuya, a long time drunk, stayed home. He couldn’t care less whether or not Kataki lived or died.
As they frantically reached the hospital entrance and rushed in, asking people left and right where Kataki was taken, a doctor clad all in white from head to toe approached them with the calmness of a lawyer. He raised a hand to fix his wiry glasses upon his face of wrinkles. “Is there something I can help you with?” he asked, peering down at the two through his tiny spectacles.
Not knowing whom or where to turn to, Sayaka grabbed a hold of the man before her. “Please, my son’s been in an accident! I must find where they took him!”
“Shh-shh, it’s all right,” he said to her, freeing himself from her hold. “I’m sure I can help you find him. If you’d just come with me, I can ask the nice lady at the desk where they brought him.”
“Ahh… yes, alright.”
The two followed the doctor silently down a hallway of chaos. It wasn’t chaotic in terms of business, but that of disorder and misfortune. As they walked down the hallway, they past rooms in which they heard cries and moans from patients in pain, rooms where family members mourned the recent loss of a loved one, rooms where only the tedious voices from the television set echoed throughout. Wasn’t there at least one room where happiness overflowed into the hallway with its golden glow? It seemed like joy and hoped was so distant from this place. And Sayaka wanted her son out of this dismal, tainted environment as soon as possible.
They finally reached the main desk of admittance, where the doctor leaned over the desk and whispered something to the nurse there. Turning to the two girls, he asked the elder, “And what was the name of your son?”
“Kataki. Ijiwaru Kataki.”
Somewhat stunned by such a dark name, the doctor frowned at the woman for a split second and then turned to the nurse. “Sammi, could you please tell me which floor an ‘Ijiwaru Kataki’ was taken to, dear?”
The nurse, a young girl with bright pink hair and flashing blue eyes, flipped through a small booklet of the names of patients that were recently admitted to the hospital. “Ahh, yes, Ijiwaru… Kataki.” She stopped and looked at the two girls to make sure the name was correct.
Forgetting about the doctor beside her, Sayaka approached the nurse at the counter. “Yes, yes! That’s my son! Please, where is he?”
“He was taken to the 3rd floor, ICU. Just let the nurses up there know that you are his mother, if you want admittance in to see him.”
“Yes, of course. Thank you.” Quickly turning to scurry away to the elevators, Sayaka took Sakura’s hand and dragged her after.
The accent to the 3rd floor was the most uncomfortable three minutes of Sakura’s life. She could feel the fear within her mother but she didn’t know what to do about it. She was afraid for her brother, too. As she stood in the elevator with her mother squeezing the life out of her hand, she could almost hear her brother’s defiant voice ringing in her mind. They were extremely close for not really being related by blood at all. Sakura was always there for him when their father was going on a drunken rampage. She couldn’t understand why Tetsuya treated Kataki the way he did, nor why his drinking became such a problem. All she knew now was that her brother was in trouble again, and she had to be there for him.
As the doors of the elevator opened, Sayaka tightened her grasp on Sakura’s hand. “Come on, hunnie. We have to hurry!”
They ran down the hall to the 3rd Floor main desk. Only one nurse with silvery-white hair was on staff. Looking up only when Sayaka spoke, the nurse said, “What?”
“Could you please tell me which room Ijiwaru Kataki is in, please! I am his mother!”
“An… Ijiwaru Kataki? What kind of name is— Uh, alright. Hold on a sec. Let me look here…” She took out a similar book the nurse downstairs had and looked for the name inside. Placing her finger under the name as she turned the page, she said, “Ah, yeah. He’s in room 137, but I’m afraid you won’t be able to go in.”
Shocked and worried all the more, Sayaka asked, “Well…why not? What’s the matter? Is he alright? What happened?”
“I’m not exactly authorized to say…but, since you are his mother and all, I think I can let it slide just this once.”
“Yes, yes…please, just tell me! What is wrong with my son?”
Standing and walking up to the large shelves of files behind her, she removed Kataki’s personal file. She briefly looked through its contents and returned her cold gaze upon the mother. “There’s nothing wrong with him, according to these records. It says here that there was some sort of accident at…Mt. Sukuba. He and another student fell from a high cliff and were later found by the supervising…supervisors. If you have any further questions, the doctor may still be down there.”
Sayaka, emotionally numb, stared blankly at the nurse. Slowly nodding, she said “Thank you” and trailed off down the hallway with Sakura following closely behind.
The rooms on this floor were even worse than those down below. Not only did the silence bite deep into their hearts, but the sights of people torn apart from wicked accidents cast a bleak shadow upon their spirits. Is this what Kataki will look like? All torn and bloody? Hardly alive? Dead maybe? Sakura couldn’t bear it. She clamped on to her mother and desperately tried to hide the awful sight of the wounded from her eyes.
As they came to Room 137, they heard the most wonderful sound: Kataki’s angered shouts and curses. He was all right! Sakura let go of her mother and ran into the room. It was a one person room, very clean and white, except for the spilt tray of food that now littered the floor.
Walking to his bed side, Sakura asked, “Are you all right?”
“Am I all right?” he repeated, staring darkly at her. “Am I all right? Are you really that stupid? Look at me! I can’t move my arm! That bastard made me lose my arm!”
Over hearing, Sayaka joined Sakura. “What do you mean you can’t move your arm? What’s the matter?”
“You’re all so stupid.” He looked away with tears rolling down his face. “Don’t you get it? I won’t be able to play sports anymore without this arm. I was the best and was going to stay the best, but that damn fool, Hisoka! He’s ruined my life!”
Hisoka? Who was he? Oh, yes. He must have been the one Kataki had always spoken about and how stupid he was. This Hisoka was a long-time rival of his, but he had never spoken about him this way before. What could drive mere rivalry to pure hatred?
“Kataki, what about Hisoka? What’d he do?” Sakura said, holding on to the bar along side Kataki’s bed.
“What’d he do? He let me fall, that’s what he did! He let me fall! And as not to look guilty, he jumped after me, that bastard. Did he really think that would change anything? I hope he never wakes up!”
Hisoka jumped after him, to make it look like he tried to help Kataki from falling, to cover up his own attempts to kick Kataki off the side of the mountain? None of that sounded very rational. Sakura didn’t know Hisoka very well, but what she heard about him told her that he wouldn’t have done anything like that. More so, Kataki would have been more apt to do such a wicked thing more than Hisoka. What was he trying to do? Ruin his rival’s good reputation? Or was he really trying to hide his own weakness, vulnerabilities?
“Oh, Kataki, don’t speak like that. But, I am very relieved that you are all right, son,” Sayaka added, tracing the side of his face with her hand.
Suddenly, the doctor walked in, carrying a handful of folders and papers. “Ahh, so I see you have arrived. Excellent timing. Here, I’ll need you to fill out these forms before we do anything more for your son.” He gave her a few sheets of paper. Setting the rest on a small table next to the window that exposed the small room to the watchful eyes of passers-by in the hallway, he approached the opposite side of Kataki. “Ahh, so how are you fairing, m’boy?”
“What do you think? You’re the doctor. And don’t call me ‘m’boy.’”
“Ahh, alright, fine.” The doctor took out his stethoscope and placed the one end on Kataki’s chest.
“Ouch, that’s cold,” he complained.
“It’s all right. Just breath in and out normally.”
Out of mere curiosity, Sakura looked at the doctor and asked, “Doctor, what happened to the other student that was involved in this accident.”
“Hisoka?” Kataki frowned at his sister. “Why do you want to know about him? He’s dead, of course.”
Laughing, the doctor replied, “Oh no, he’s very much alive… uhh, well, for the most part, that is.”
“For the most part?” Sakura asked, turning back around to look at the doctor.
“Well, he suffered a massive head injury in the fall. We haven’t been able to awaken him, and we don’t know if he’ll ever regain consciousness. His mother’s with him now, just across the hall.” Looking back to his patient, he placed his hands on Kataki’s injured arm and raised it. “Ok, can you hold your arm up, like this?”
“Ouch! No, dammit! It’s completely numb!”
“Hmm, alright.” He wiggled Kataki’s fingers and asked again, “How about now? Do you feel this?”
“No, idiot! I can’t feel a thing! Stop toying with me!”
All the while Sayaka was filling out forms, the doctor was examining Kataki’s arm, and Sakura… She couldn’t help her gaze fall to the other room across the hall. A young boy she didn’t even know was dying in that room. Just the thought of someone dying at her age struck a very tender nerve. She felt sorry for the boy; she wanted to do something to help, but didn’t know what. Maybe if she just told the boy’s mother that she was sorry… Maybe that would help a little.
She quietly walked to the door leading into the hallway, when Kataki noticed she was leaving.
“Sakura, where are you going?”
Looking back at her brother, she said, “I’ll be right back,” and walked out of the room.
Something was different about this room. It didn’t appear to be as dark as the rest, almost as if there was more lighting coming from within it. As Sakura walked through the door, she first saw the boy’s mother sitting on a small stool beside the bed, and then her eyes moved on to the boy from her school, covered in tubes, wires, and bandages. She could hardly even tell there was a boy her age underneath the mask of injury. In such a swift blow, life was wiped away so quickly and nothing much was left. Only a faint glimmer of the once vibrant life remained.
“Um, excuse me,” Sakura said nervously. Jerking around in her squeaky chair, Aiko looked at her through watery eyes. “Uh… My brother was the other student that fell from the cliff. I, ah,just wanted to share my… sympathies with you…” Again her eyes fell upon the boy. “My brother was fortunate. I just hope that your son will be all right. No,” she shook her head. “I know he will be.”
Aiko wiped away her tears with a small tissue and smiled. “Thank you. I really appreciate that. Please, let your brother know that I wish him well, also.” She returned her constant gaze upon her son before her.
“Uh-huh,” Sakura nodded. She turned to walk out the door, but then something stopped her. Only one more step from the doorway, she heard a voice. She looked around, but there was no one there. Frightened, she darted across the hallway to her mother’s warm embrace. She always ran to her mother for comfort whenever she was scared, but she could never erase the fear from her heart, nor the words that repeated over and over in her mind.
“Help me…”
**********
By the time Kaori made it to Aiko’s home, she was already worried to no end. Eagerly walking to the door, Kaori knocked her usual three times and stepped back. Then she heard loud footsteps echoing from inside until Aiko, out of breath, opened the door.
“Oh, Kaori! Thank you so much for coming with such short notice.”
Kaori smiled slyly. “Nah, don’t worry about it. Work’s been a bit slow lately. Besides, it’s always a pleasure to help my favorite, uh… friends. Yeah…”
“Please, come in,” Aiko stepped aside for the girl to come in. “He’s back here.” Kaori nodded for Aiko to go on.
They walked through the main hallway, past the kitchen and family room on to Hisoka’s room at the end of the hall. As Kaori entered the room, something felt oddly familiar to her, something she hadn’t experienced since Aiko first contacted her to examine Hisoka after the accident five years ago. It was such a minor little thing at the time and she cast it out of her mind then, but now she wasn’t so sure. Before she remembered how bright Hisoka’s room had been lit, although there weren’t any more or less lights than there were in any other room. Still it seemed somewhat brighter, more illuminated with some sort of light or aura. Kaori felt the same sort of thing from this room now. There were two windows in his room, but both of them had the shades pulled. Only one light on the desk beside the bed was turned on. No other lamps were on.
“None, none at all…” she found herself say quietly to herself.
“What did you say?”
As if waking from a dream, Kaori jumped and quickly regained herself. “Oh, nothing.” She stepped closer to the bed and knelt down beside Hisoka. “So, what seems to be the problem?”
“He won’t wake up, just like before! Please, don’t tell me he’s fallen into another coma!”
Giggling more to herself than anything, Kaori grinned. “No, he looks fine to me. He’d need another nice bump on the head for that to happen. But you say he won’t wake up? What were you guys talking about before he blacked out?”
“He was asking me all these questions about the incident in 7th grade. Why all of a sudden, I don’t know, but I guess that he’s run into the Ijiwaru kids again. Maybe that’s triggered parts of his lost memory?”
“I suppose. He’s blocked all of the memories centering around that accident, it only makes sense that meeting with the Ijiwaru pair triggered the progressive return of his memory. But I’m not sure why he’d just faint like this… Unless, something else happened during that time, something that he’d fight so hard to forget and remain hidden.”
Aiko shook her head, confused. “I don’t know what that could be. He never spoke of anything that happened then, like everything from that time never even happened.”
“Interesting… What would be so horrible that would cause him to forget an entire year of his life?”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. Sorry, I tend to ramble sometimes… Anyway, our first priority right now is waking this kid from his slumber.”
“Any ideas how?”
“I’ve got one.”
**********
“You’re pathetic,” the demon said. “A pathetic weakling, that’s what you are.” Kneeling down on the broken ground in front of Hisoka, the beast grinned, baring his jagged, white teeth. “Can’t even look at me in the face... C’mon, look at me!” Harshly jerking Hisoka’s head up by the hair, the demon smiled at Hisoka’s painful gaze. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“How the hell should I know?” Hisoka spat with a raspy voice.
“Don’t know? I’ll show you.” He took Hisoka by the throat, then gripped his left arm and dragged him across the dusty ground. Walking up the peak Hisoka once sought shelter under, the demon easily climbed up the side, enjoying the sound of Hisoka squirming behind him, being dragged to his death like a dog. Once at the top, the demon flung him over the side of the cliff, only holding on to his one arm. “This is what you’re here for, Hisoka. You are only here to die, and I am here to make sure that your death comes to pass. But first, I’ll let you in on a little secret. This place all around, it’s nothing but a dream world. It was created by that imaginative, little brain of yours. So you can’t blame me for everything.”
Hanging by his arm, blood beginning to ooze from his wrist, Hisoka frowned. “Dream world? W-What are you talking about?”
“You’re having a nasty nightmare, my boy. This is all a dream… And yet, you’re making it real.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Of course you don’t! That’s why it’s so much more fun on my part to feed you bits and pieces of the truth without fully saying anything at all!”
“Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?”
Laughing, the demon brought Hisoka to the level of his face. “Who am I? Why, I am you, Hisoka… I am you…”
**********
Removing a small, round object from her bag, Kaori held the and looked it over in her hand. She never used this device before, but she had heard many shocking stories of it being used to waken people from extremely vivid dreams and nightmares. She could only assume that Hisoka was deep within a devilish nightmare now, conjured up by his fragmented memory surrounding the accident five years ago. How the device would work and how quickly, she couldn’t say.
“What is that thing?” Aiko asked, holding onto Hisoka’s right hand.
“It’s called a Dreambomb. It first makes a nifty connection between the dream and the real world so that the dreamer can inevitably wake up. Then it acts as a convenient wake up call for the dreamer, who can’t seem to wake from his dream.”
Aiko shivered and fondled Hisoka’s hand. “It sounds horrible.”
“Ah, it’s nothing to worry about. If it works, Hisoka will wake up as if he’s had a bad dream, that’s all.” If he sees or hears the signal… “…So, shall we give it a go?”
Aiko nodded the go ahead, and Kaori pressed a small button on the silver orb in her hand. The object suddenly began pulsating a deep red color and arose about three inches from Kaori’s hand.
“Wow, this is cool stuff!” she said, astounded by the magnificent relic.
“Haven’t you used this thing before?”
Innocently grinning, Kaori continued to look at the object, “Um, well you see… Not really. The guys said I wasn’t an experienced enough psychic to handle the device, so they never let me use one.”
“But you’re experienced now…right?”
“Um… Not really…”
Turning away with her head in her hands, Aiko mumbled mixed prayers and curses to herself.
“Hey, hey! Don’t worry! Nothing bad can happen! Trust me!”
**********
Staring with disbelief at the beast that held him utterly helpless, Hisoka scowled, completely confused. “H-How can you be me? Why are you trying to kill me?”
“That’s simple and I could tell you the whys and how’s right now, but I choose not to…simply because it wouldn’t be any fun that way.”
None of this made any sense! How much longer would this continue? He couldn’t understand the odd feeling he had as he walked past the tree in the Hokage yard, he couldn’t understand why he felt like he knew that Kataki kid, and he couldn’t understand why he somehow forgot everything that happened in 7th grade that had anything to do with the accident at Mt. Sukuba. Now he was running from a crazed demon out to kill him in some freaked out dream world. If what he said about being in a dream state was true, then why was everything so real? If the demon managed to kill him in this dream, would he truly die in the real world? And why did he tell him as much as he did? To make things more unclear, to confuse him all the more? The more he thought about how this demon played upon him, taunted him with such demeaning language, the more angered he became.
“Let me down, you bastard,” Hisoka grimaced, his eyes closed, fighting off the feeling to give in and let whatever happen.
The beast that held him grinned. “You want down? I can do that…” He teasingly let go of Hisoka’s hand for a moment, allowing him to experience a split second of weightlessness, then he grabbed a hold of him once more. “Was that fun? You want to do it again?”
“Stop it!”
“I feel
like doing it again. Maybe this time I
won’t feel like catching you. What do
you think?”
“Stop it!”
“Oh, and I want to clear one thing up before I let you go. What they say about people dying in dreams… If you die here, you die out there, too. Whatever happens here, happens there…”
“Shut up!”
“Hahaha, my you’re a feisty one. What do you think about this?” As if to tickle him, the demon touched Hisoka’s side where the dagger plunged into him. “What must your mother think when she sees this, huh? Or about that gorgeous gash above your neck…or maybe you’d like a new little mark…” Holding Hisoka with his right arm, the demon summoned another mid-sized dagger to appear in his hand. “What kind of damage do you think this little guy can do? Hm? Don’t know? Well, it’s ideally for slashing and stuff like that, but I especially like it for its clean thrusts…like this.”
With a gigantic grin on his face, the demon drove the dagger into Hisoka’s stomach. The boy flinched slightly, the anger helping him to bear the pain without much reaction. This blow was by far worse than the last dagger attack, the eddy of pain gradually increasing as he looked down to see his clothing being stained a deep color of red. Not satisfied at all, the demon laughed as he let go of the blade still lodged between the lower portion of Hisoka’s lungs. Blood was seeping everywhere. Should he try and pull out the blade himself and let his blood flow from him like a giant waterfall? It was already difficult to breath from the attack before, but it was nearly impossible to do so with a dagger through his gut. It had to come out. So, with his one free hand, he gripped the hilt of the dagger and pulled, another wave of intense pain flooding through him. He was far too weak to pull it out in one shot with the use of only one hand. It would probably take up to five tries until it could be freed.
And this the demon relished in knowing. As Hisoka continued to force the blade from his broken body, the demon held him up high, watching every move, every grimace of pain that wreaked across his being. Each ounce of agony was like a piece of candy to him, sweet and delicious in every way imaginable, and the only thing he could think about was how to get more… more… more…
At last, with one final struggle with the weapon, Hisoka wrenched it free, slicing up the palm of his hand in the process. As he held the dagger with his own blood tainting its brilliant, silver steel, Hisoka looked into the demon’s dark eyes. If I can die here, then so can he…
To the extent of his depleting strength, Hisoka threw the blade to pierce through demon’s heart. His aim was true and the dagger hit its mark, only the demon showed no indication that he felt the attack. Hisoka could see the blade was successfully lodged into the beast’s chest cavity if at all it missed he heart, yet, there was no sign of any blood loss or anything at all. For all he knew, the attack seemed rather ineffective all together, until he felt as if he was having massive heart failure. Not only couldn’t he catch his breath, but felt more pain ripping through his tortured body. Hardly able to move, Hisoka looked down and saw the very dagger he had just thrown, jutting out from his chest. Without the strength to pull this blade out, he could only look back in agony at the demon.
“H-How…?”
**********
“Nothing’s happening…” Aiko said, as she continued stroking the back of Hisoka’s right hand.
“Hmm, I don’t get it… We should see some kind of change once the Dreambomb’s activated… Here, hold this,” Kaori took Aiko’s hand and gave her the Dreambomb. There was only one way to see if this thing was working: by physically examining the patient.
Shoving Aiko reluctantly out of the way, Kaori removed the covers that Aiko had placed over him, and as she ripped away the blankets, a most unsettling sight unfolded there. The Dreambomb was working perfectly. It connected the dream world with the real and showed exactly what was happening there, or at least what was happening to Hisoka. The sheets were covered in blood and soaked more than one layer. Hisoka’s school clothes were wet with blood from three main areas of his body: his right side, his mid-stomach area, and his upper left chest area. Minor cuts and abrasions also became visible as the Dreambomb continued to flash in Aiko’s faltering hands.
“What happened!? What is wrong with him!?”
“I-I dunno… uh, the Dreambomb is supposed to connect both worlds, but not like this… If he’s having some nightmare where he’s getting torn apart by something…I don’t know why the Dreambomb would even act in this way.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. Frustration and worry driving her actions, Aiko turned to Kaori. “Did this happen because you’re such an inexperienced psychic physician? You’re incompetence did this to my son!” Throwing the glowing orb back at the young girl, Aiko yelled, “Turn this thing off! Stop it!”
“I-I don’t know how! It’s supposed to turn off once it’s finished working… It’s not done yet!”
“I don’t care what you do, just shut that thing off! Can’t you see it’s killing him?”
What to do… What to do… Nothing has ever gone exactly smooth for her before, but she was determined to iron out the lumps in her path. “Calm down. It’ll be all right.” She took the orb and cupped it in her hands. She spoke the truth when she said she didn’t know how to abort the orb’s program once it had been initiated, but she somehow knew she could handle it. Closing her eyes, she spoke with thoughts alone directly to the object within her hands.
Whatever you are doing, whatever connection you have to Hisoka, you must stop it now! Sever any connection you have to his dreams, and return to your stationary state! Your task is complete.
Suddenly, the orb stopped spinning inside Kaori’s hands and the blinking red light faded from sight. The little button that Kaori had pressed to begin the process again righted itself. The mechanism was again nothing but a round, silver ball.
With a great sigh, Kaori said, “There. All done.”